honors thesis dartmouth

• The Student Experience
• Financial Aid
• Degree Finder
• Undergraduate Arts & Sciences
• Departments and Programs
• Research, Scholarship & Creativity
• Centers & Institutes
• Geisel School of Medicine
• Guarini School of Graduate & Advanced Studies
• Thayer School of Engineering
• Tuck School of Business

Campus Life

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Athletics & Recreation
• Student Groups & Activities
• Residential Life

Environmental Studies

• [email protected] Contact & Department Info Mail
• Undergraduate
• Culminating Experience
• ENVS 50 Archive
• Minor Tracks
• Sample Syllabi
• Transfer Term Credit

Recent Honors Theses

• Learning Outcomes
• Foreign Study
• Africa FSP Syllabi and Documents
• New England DSP
• Paulson Fellowships
• Student Research and Internships
• Faculty Research Fields
• Hornig Library of Environmental Studies
• Alumni Stories
• Office of Sustainability
• Dartmouth Organic Farm
• Past Café Events
• News & Events
• News & Events
• Past Events Archive

Search form

• Major and Minors

Recent Honors Thesis from Environmental Studies 91

Vivienne Knobel – Advised by Chris Sneddon – "Cattle & Climate Change: Synergizing a Political Ecology of Beef Cattle Ranching in Wyoming"

Jesse Ferraioli – Advised by Rich Howarth – "The Role of the Forest Service in Protecting Water and Cultural Resources from Mining Claims: Deficiencies and Improvements Since Pinyon Plain Mine"

Megan Hemstreet – Advised by Rich Howarth – "A Critical Examination of the Energy Implications of Cryptocurrency Mining and the Path to Sustainable Solutions"

Maeen Arslan – Advised by Bill Roebuck – "Is Phosphine the Primary Toxicant of Environmental White Phosphorus Exposure?"

Nicholas Mancini – Advised by Ross Jones – "The Role of Politics and Science in Endangered Species Act Listing Decisions"

Fiona Price – Advised by Michael Cox – "Experimental Water Use Board Game to Analyze Farmer Decision-Making in the Dominican Republic"

Kyle Spencer – Advised by Rich Howarth – "Is Sustainable Finance Possible? Environmental Metrics Influencing Acquisition Value in Private Equity"

Sophia Sulimirski – Advised by Rich Howarth – "Reevaluating Beef: Advancing Sustainability in the Future of U.S. Cattle Farming"

Victoria Hoffner – Advised by: Rich Howarth – "Valuing Carbon Sequestration from Biochar Application"

Abigail Mans – Advised by: Melody Burkins – "Ferocious Love: Women's Reimagination and Restructuring of the Climate Movement"

Mothibi Penn-Kekana – Advised by Elizabeth Wilson and Rich Howarth – "Scope for Further Improvement: Evaluating the Carbon Accounting Frameworks Used to Calculate ESG Ratings for Oil and Gas Producers"

Abigail Schill – Advised by Michael Cox – "The Sun Will Rise: Climate Activism and Hope"

Victor Wu – Advised by Rich Howarth – "Partisan Energy Mix Preferences and Attitudes Towards Community Choice Aggregation"

Leah Brams – Advised by: Melody Burkins – "The Future of the Transportation & Climate Initiative (TCI) in Vermont: Exploring Opportunities and Challenges Through Stakeholder Interviews"

Anela Arifi – Advised by: Lee Lynd – "Modelling Soil Carbon Flux and Sequestration in Various Biofuel Supply Chain Scenarios"

Hanna Bliska – Advised by: Lauren Culler – "Elucidating aquatic and terrestrial linkages in Arctic arthropod food webs"

Alyssa Gao – Advised by: Michael Cox – "Breaking the Green Ceiling: Mapping the strategies, challenges and successes in diversifying the mainstream environmental movement"

Ella Hall – Advised by: Theresa Ong – "Implications of Fuel-Reduction Treatments for Carbon Storage and Sequestration in semi-arid mixed Conifer Forests of North-Central Washington State"

Joseph Hall – Advised by: Rich Howarth – "Investigating the Role of Project Finance in Wind and Solar Development in the United States"

Sarah Pearl – Advised by Rich Howarth – "Climate Solutions in a 'Post-Natural' World: How Solar Geoengineering Proposals Complicate the Mitigation Portfolio"

Lindsey Reitinger – Advised by Michael Cox – "Building Community Capitals through Co-management: Partner Farms in Washington, D.C."

Alex Cotnoir - Advised by: Matt Ayres - "Masting, vegetation structure, and nest predation: determinants of reproductive success in a neotropical migratory songbird"

Margarita Ren - Advised by Chris Sneddon - "Cultivating Care: Biocultural Assembling and Resilience Dynamics in the Danny Woo Community Garden"

Carly Rizzuto - Adivised by Terry Osborne - "Making Environmental Injustice Visible in Arroyo Barril: A study of colonial and company history, slow violence, and waste privilege"

Vianey Rueda - Advised by Michael Cox - "Water and land in the Dominican Republic: Exploring the feasibility of resource co-management"

Sherry Sneezer - Advised by Michael Cox - "Solar Energy Development on the Navajo Nation"

Alex Stendahl - Advised by Lauren Culler - "The activity and reproduction of Arctic wolf spiders near and far from mosquito ponds"

Jordan Swett - Advised by Michael Cox - "Assessing the opportunities and barriers for solar development in rural villages of South Africa"

Heidi Ahn - Advised by: Richard Howarth - "Acacia Koa: A Follow-up Study and Assessment of Koa Forestry in Hawai’i"

James Buchanan - Advised by: Michael Cox - "Chasing Winter: A Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment of Crested Butte, Colorado"

Lydia Freehafer - Advised by: Anne Kapuscinski - "Toward sustainability-as-flourishing: An examination of environmental organizations involved in post-Katrina rebuilding of New Orleans"

Calin Mason - Advised by: Anne Kapuscinski - "Afro-ecology: Black Agrarianism as Regenerative Activism"

Eleni Mora - Advised by: Andy Friedland - "Investigating Aboveground-Belowground Carbon and Nitrogen Linkages in Post-Agricultural New England"

Madison Sabol - Advised by: Rich Howarth - "Perceptions of Terroir in Vermont Wine and Cider"

Alexandra Sclafani - Advised by: Anne Kapuscinski - "Upcycling brewery wastewater to cultivate microalgae: A systems approach to sustainable aquafeed production"

Kalae Trask-Sharpe - Advised by: Nicholas Reo - "Navigating Politics Of Loko Iʻa Restoration At Waiʻuli, Hawaiʻi"

Kathryn Gardner - Advised by Michael Cox - "Total Zero Waste: A Comparative Evaluation of Municipal Waste Management Systems”

Alisa White - Advised by Richard Howarth - “Small-Scale Forestry and Carbon Offset Markets: An Empirical Study of Vermont Current Use Forest Landowner Willingness to Accept Carbon Credit Programs.” 

Lauren Buchanan – Advised by Michael Cox, Richard Howarth - "The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Economic Performance"

Alison Dyer – Advised by Michael Cox - "From Beach to Bisque: An Analysis of Loberst Fisheries Management"

Thora Olsen – Advised by Terry Osborne, Terry Tempest Williams, Richard Howarth - “Mindfulness, Meditation, and Shifting Paradigms”

Vickie Pan – Advised by Michael Cox - “A New Industry Arises: A Comparative Case Study of the US Energy Storage Market and a Framework for Emerging Markets”

Leehi Yona (Senior Fellow) - "Young Hope in a Dark World: Leverage Points for Climate Action"

Katie Bernhard – Advised by Anne Kapuscinski, Chris Sneddon - "From Mines in Morocco to Creeks in the Corn Belt: A Political Ecology of the Phosphate Supply Chain"

Sarah Caughey – Advised by D. G. Webster, Michael Cox - "Video Based interviewing as a method to study spearfishermen decision making in Buen Hombre, Dominican Republic"

Erin Livesey – Advised by Michael Cox - “Practical or Pipe Dream: An Assessment of the Feasibility of Commercial Aquaponics in the United States”

Lucia Pohlman – Advised by Michael Cox - “Student Perceptions and Constraints for Community Supported Agriculture in the Dartmouth Food System”

Michael Berger - Advised by: Michael Cox, Ross Virginia - "Cheating the resource curse? A case study of offshore oil development near Barrow, Alaska"

Rachel Carter - Advised by: Anne Kapuscinski - "The Influence of Environmental Concern on Protein Purchases: A Survey-Based Case Study"

Jimena Diaz - Advised by: Rich Howarth, Matt Ayres "Climate Change and the Persistence of Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) in the Second College Grant"

Sammi Dowdell - Advised by: Michael Cox, Coleen Fox - "Passion, Power, and Profit: Ecotourism's Role in Coral Reef Conservation on Bonaire"

Shea Flanagan - Advised by: Doug Bolger, Anne Kapuscinski, Julian Fennessy - "Analysis of Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) Post-Translocation Movement Patterns and  Implications for Conservation Management"

Katie Gougelet   - Advised by: Bill Roebuck, Sienna Craig, Michael Cox-"The Political Ecology of Human Health in West Virginian Coal Mining Communities"

Maya Johnson   - Advised by: Ross Jones, Nick Reo, Bruce Duthu - "Cultural and Scientific Drivers of Water Quantity and Quality Law on the Flathead Reservation"

Lisa Rennels - Advised by: Rich Howarth, Michael Cox - "Are Payments for Watershed Services Better Off as a Metaphor? A Look at the Northern Forest"

Ali Uribe - Advised by: D. G. Webster, Celia Chen, Nick Reo - "Lionfish in Colombia: From Super-Invader to Super-Food"

Janna Wandzilak - Advised by Rich Howarth, D. G. Webster - "Growing the EcoTree: A Look at Marketing Sustainable Apparel in the Upper Valley"

Deborah Yeoh-Wang - Advised by: Ross Virginia, Susanne Freidberg - "The Political Ecology of Food Assistance Programs: A Study on Food Pantries and Soup Kitchens in the Greater Boston Area"

Sara Brennan - Advised by: Chris Sneddon, Rich Howarth - "Fostering a Multi-Scale Approach to Ecosystem Restoration: A Case Study of the San Juan Islands"

Lindsay Brewer -  Advised by:  Rich Howarth, Ron Shaiko - "Tracing the Evolution and Trajectory of Corporate Social Responsibility"

Margaret Fleming -  Advised by:  D. G. Webster, Chris Sneddon - "Water, Conflict, and Cooperation: A Case Study of the Euphrates-Tigris River Basin"

Madilyn Gamble -  Advised by:  Anne Kapuscinski, Andy Friedland - "Managing phosphorus discharge from Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) aquaculture with microalgae-supplemented diets"

Claire Hornig -  Advised by:  Andy Friedland, Rich Howarth - "Modeling Carbon Release After Harvest in a Northern Hardwood Forest"

Bonita Längle -  Advised by:  Anne Kapuscinski, Michael Cox - "Institutional Barriers to and Opportunities for Waste Reintegration: Vermont and its National Context"

Joshua Lee -  Advised by:  Rich Howarth, TxeTxu Aguado - "An Inconvenient Narrative: Apocalyptic Rhetoric and its Implications on Climate Change Policy"

Rosalie Lipfert -  Advised by:  Rich Howarth, Ross Virginia - "Industrial Meat and the Ethics of Meat Consumption: A Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Approach to Understanding How the U.S. Meat Industry Came to Be and Whether We Should Do Anything to Change It"

Danielle Nathanson -  Advised by:  Terry Osborne, Laura Conkey - "Two Hundred Acres: Reading the Story Time Left Behind at the Dartmouth Organic Farm"

Rebecca Niemiec -  Advised by:  Rich Howarth, D. G. Webster, Matt Ayres - "Carbon sequestration and the optimal management of forest stands for Southern Pine Beetle (D. Frontalis) pestilence in the New Jersey Pinelands"

Brian Bosche - Advised by: D.G. Webster -"Transparency and the Success of Citizen Science Programs"

Christopher Randall   - Advised by:  Christopher Sneddon -"Dam Removal in New England: A Comparative Analysis of State Policies"

Samuel C. Ross    - Advised by:  Richard Howarth - "Soil Carbon Dynamics & Carbon Markets with Emissions Offsets: The Case of New England Hardwood Forests"

Giulia Siccardo    - Advised by:  Richard Howarth - "Thriving & Green: Synergies in Sustainability and Profitability"

Jenny Thapa    - Advised by:  Richard Howarth - "Community Forestry and its Socio Economic Impact on the Disadvantaged Group in Nepal"

Christina Whittaker    - Advised by:  Richard Howarth and Coleen Fox - "Responsible Tourism and Sustainable Development in Monteverde, Costa Rica"

• The Student Experience
• Financial Aid
• Degree Finder
• Undergraduate Arts & Sciences
• Departments and Programs
• Research, Scholarship & Creativity
• Centers & Institutes
• Geisel School of Medicine
• Guarini School of Graduate & Advanced Studies
• Thayer School of Engineering
• Tuck School of Business

Campus Life

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Athletics & Recreation
• Student Groups & Activities
• Residential Life

Quantitative Social Science

Program in quantitative social science.

• [email protected] Contact & Department Info Mail
• Undergraduate
• What is it like to write a QSS thesis?
• Questions about the curriculum
• What is it like to complete a one quarter QSS research project?
• What can I do with a QSS degree?
• Wisdom from alumni
• Course Schedule by Term
• QSS student prize
• Class of 2023
• Class of 2022
• Class of 2021
• Class of 2020
• Class of 2019
• Class of 2018
• Selected theses 2022-23
• Selected theses 2021-22
• Selected theses 2020-21
• Selected theses 2019-20
• Selected theses 2018-19
• Selected theses 2017-18
• Selected theses 2016-17
• Selected theses 2015-16
• Selected 2018-19 Projects
• Selected 2017-18 projects
• Selected 2016-17 projects
• Faculty-Student Collaborations
• About the Program
• General questions
• Questions about research
• Student perspectives on QSS
• News & Events
• News & Events
• Dartmouth Interdisciplinary Network Research Group
• Past Events
• Faculty, Fellows, Affiliates & Staff
• Alumni Stories
• Tell Us Your Story

Search form

• One Quarter Research Projects

Honors theses

All QSS majors are required to complete an independent research project, either a senior honors thesis, which takes a full academic year, or a one quarter research project in the winter quarter of a student’s last year on campus. All QSS research projects--honors theses and one quarter projects--are supervised by QSS-affiliated faculty at Dartmouth and by the QSS Director of Undergraduate Research. QSS research projects are independent, meaning that each student completes his or own project. However, QSS students working on research are embedded in a network of advisers and other QSS students. All QSS research projects must be publicly defended upon completion.

Kevin Hu '20 presenting his thesis on "Oscillating Replicator Dynamics with Attractor Arcs: A Game-Theoretical Exploration of Technology, Policy and Market Inuences on Gig Economy Labor Strategies"

Andrea Sedlacek '20 presenting her thesis on "How Network Structure and Cultural Sentiments Shape Affective Alignment and Behavior Dynamics in Online Collaborative Task Groups"

Aidan Sheinberg '20 presenting his thesis on "Building Blocks of Opportunity?: The Effect of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits on Intergenerational Income Mobility for Disadvantaged Youths"

Grace Sherrill '20 presenting her thesis on "Consensus in Care: Deservingness, Policy Feedback, and Partisanship in the U.S. Long-Term Care System"

Sunny Drescher '20 presenting her thesis on "Engendering Support? The E ects of Gendered Information Cues on Voters' Policy Preferences"

How to Complete an Honors Thesis in QSS

QSS Honors Thesis Guidelines

What's it like to write a QSS thesis

• The Student Experience
• Financial Aid
• Degree Finder
• Undergraduate Arts & Sciences
• Departments and Programs
• Research, Scholarship & Creativity
• Centers & Institutes
• Geisel School of Medicine
• Guarini School of Graduate & Advanced Studies
• Thayer School of Engineering
• Tuck School of Business

Campus Life

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Athletics & Recreation
• Student Groups & Activities
• Residential Life

Undergraduate Advising and Research (UGAR)

• [email protected] Contact & Department Info Mail
• Affiliated Programs
• Racial injustice statement
• About Research
• Eligibility
• Finding a Faculty Mentor
• UGAR deadlines
• Dartmouth research funding
• External research funding
• Presidential Scholars
• Leave Term Grants

Honors Thesis Grants

• Conference Funding
• Senior Fellowships
• Shoals Marine Lab Summer Research
• Application do's and don'ts
• Budget Guidelines
• Copyright and Patent Information
• Council on Undergraduate Research
• Final Reports
• Research Organizations
• Research Proposal Guidelines
• Resolving Difficulties
• Stipend Information
• Switching Mentors or Projects
• Thank you to funders
• Tax Information
• Travel Information
• UGAR updates
• Faculty project database
• Faculty eligibility
• Information and resources
• Mentoring students
• Permissions and training
• UGAR Programs
• Scholar Programs
• Hanlon Scholars
• Coulter Scholars
• Gerstner Scholars
• Program information
• How to apply
• List of Stamps Scholars
• New Stamps Scholars
• Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowships
• Research Events
• General Information
• 2024 Symposium
• Poster guidelines
• Award for Library Research in the Sciences
• Christopher G. Reed Science Competition
• MAD research video competition
• Spring at Dartmouth: Research and Dialogues
• Undergraduate research conferences
• Academic Advising
• Advising at Dartmouth
• Meal Reimbursement Policy
• Advising resources for students
• How to get pre-major advice

Search form

• Getting Started
• Guidelines and Resources
• Research Assistantships
• WISP Internships
• Other Research Programs

Application deadlines

Grants for expenses directly related to honors thesis research.

• Funding is for honors thesis research during senior year only.
• Award amounts are based on the itemized budget and budget justification submitted by the student.
• Students should carefully consider what items are essential for their thesis research, as in most cases UGAR awards will be less than the $2500 maximum.
• Students apply in the term prior to the term in which they need the research funds.
• If the student's thesis proposal has not yet been accepted by the department or program by the grant application deadline, the student may still submit an application if endorsed by a faculty mentor.
• Students receive the funding directly. Students and their faculty mentors need to discuss how best to apply the funding to research-related expenses. UGAR cannot transfer funds directly to faculty accounts.

More information about the grants and how to apply are available in the research section of the UGAR website.

• The Student Experience
• Financial Aid
• Degree Finder
• Undergraduate Arts & Sciences
• Departments and Programs
• Research, Scholarship & Creativity
• Centers & Institutes
• Geisel School of Medicine
• Guarini School of Graduate & Advanced Studies
• Thayer School of Engineering
• Tuck School of Business

Campus Life

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Athletics & Recreation
• Student Groups & Activities
• Residential Life

Department of Government

• [email protected] Contact & Department Info Mail
• Why Government?
• Learning Outcomes
• Tell us your story
• Undergraduate
• Major/Minor
• Introductory Courses
• First-Year Seminars
• Political Analysis
• Upper-Level Courses That Cross-Subfields
• American Government
• Comparative Politics
• International Relations
• Political Theory and Public Law
• Independent Study
• Government Seminars

Honors Program

• Course Wait Lists
• Transfer Credit
• Off Campus Programs
• Washington DC
• Opportunities
• Grants and Funding
• Prizes and Awards
• Research, Fellowships & Experiences
• News & Events

Search form

The Government Department Honors Program provides qualified undergraduates with an opportunity to complete independent research under the supervision of members of the Department.

2025 Honors Program

Honors program informational session .

The Co-Directors of the Honors Program, Profs. Lucas Swaine and Benjamin Valentino will host an informational session for students interested in applying to the 2025 Honors Program. In this meeting, they will explain the program, its requirements, and expectations, as well as answer questions that prospective students have.

Did you miss the meeting? You can watch a recording of this years informational session here ! 

Applications for the 2025 Honors Program are due May 17th, 2024

Applying to the Honors Program

Participants in the Honors Program define and analyze a specific issue or hypothesis in the field of political science and write a thesis. The Program is completed within the framework of a three-course sequence during the senior year: GOVT 97 (fall), GOVT 98 (winter), and GOVT 99 (spring)

GOVT 97 is a seminar-level course; GOVT 98 is mid-level. GOVT 99 is  required  to complete the Honors Program,  but it does not count toward the Government major or minor . 

Students meet weekly with the Directors of the Honors Program during the 3B hour of the fall term. Students also meet regularly with individual thesis advisors at times convenient to both.

For additional information on writing an Honors thesis, please feel free to talk with the co-directors of the Honors Program, Lucas Swaine and Benjamin Valentino, or any of the Government faculty members. We strongly recommend speaking with potential faculty advisors about your ideas no later than the winter quarter of your junior year.

If interested in pursuing the Honors Program, please review the informational materials and the application requirements below. 

Prerequisites and Application Process

• Determine that you have successfully completed six courses from your Major or Modified Major, including at least one introductory course, at least two upper-level courses, and at least one advanced seminar before the end of your junior year. 
• Determine that you meet the minimum grade point average (GPA) of 3.3 for all Dartmouth courses, and 3.5 in the Government major.
• Determine that you have successfully completed the Government Major's statistics prerequisite (Gov 10 or its equivalent) by the end of your junior year.
• Obtain a faculty advisor (check the Government Department webpage for information on faculty interests).
• Fill out an application form , and write a thesis proposal and upload here . Both need to be submitted to the Government Department by Friday, May 17, 2024, 4:00 pm.
• If you will be away on an FSP or an LSA during spring term, you are encouraged to complete your application by the end of winter term. Extensions will not be granted on account of FSP or LSA participation.

  Additional Information

Sample Honors Proposal

​Proposal Guidelines 2024-2025

honors_2019.jpg

Honors Program Director - Prof. Benjamin Valentino 

Honors Program Director - Prof. Lucas Swaine 

Undergraduate

Entrepreneurship.

• Thayer Express
• Undergraduate Admissions
• Graduate Admissions

Undergraduate Engineering at Dartmouth

Bachelor's degrees, undergraduate experience.

• Engineering Design
• Financial Aid & Funding
• Life After Dartmouth
• Project Spaces & Labs
• Research & Entrepreneurship
• Student Life & Housing
• Study Abroad

Quick Links

• Academic Calendar
• Career Services
• Course Descriptions
• Course Schedules
• Majors & Modified Majors
• Programs & Courses Guide

Program Areas

Graduate engineering at dartmouth, master's degrees, doctoral degrees, graduate experience.

• Collaborative Programs
• Degree Outcomes
• Help & Support
• Online Education
• Scholarships, Fellowships, & Grants
• Admissions Events
• Student Handbook

Engineering Research at Dartmouth

Research by program area.

• Active Projects
• Laboratories
• Research News
• Undergraduate Research

Engineering Entrepreneurship at Dartmouth

Startups listed by, patents listed by, links & resources.

• Dartmouth NSF I-Corps Program
• Dartmouth Tech Transfer
• Entrepreneurship News
• Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship
• Office of Entrepreneurship & Technology Transfer
• PhD Innovation Program
• Tuck School of Business

Dartmouth Engineering Community

Community info, about dartmouth engineering.

Home  |  Undergraduate  |  Honors Program

Honors Program

AB students who have an overall grade point average of 3.0 with a 3.33 grade point average in the major are eligible for the Honors Program in Engineering Sciences.

On This Page

Project selections, honors levels, more details.

The honors project, either an experimental or a theoretical investigation, generally begins in ENGS 87 : Undergraduate Investigations; the project itself, part of ENGS 88 : Honors Thesis, includes a written thesis and an oral presentation.

Students who complete the Honors Program with a B+ average or better and have a grade point average of 3.33 or higher in the major receive a degree with "Honors in Engineering Sciences."

High Honors

A degree with "High Honors in Engineering Sciences" is awarded to students who, in addition to the above, have taken two Engineering Sciences courses beyond those required for the major (excluding ENGS 87 and courses under ENGS 20), have attained a grade point average of 3.50 in all engineering sciences courses, and have completed outstanding independent work.

Applications are accepted between the second week of the fall term in the junior year and the second week of the winter term in the senior year.

• Engineering Sciences Honors Program Application

For more information contact:

• Jenna D. Wheeler Undergraduate Programs Manager [email protected]

• The Student Experience
• Financial Aid
• Degree Finder
• Undergraduate Arts & Sciences
• Departments and Programs
• Research, Scholarship & Creativity
• Centers & Institutes
• Geisel School of Medicine
• Guarini School of Graduate & Advanced Studies
• Thayer School of Engineering
• Tuck School of Business

Campus Life

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Athletics & Recreation
• Student Groups & Activities
• Residential Life

Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies

Program in women's, gender, & sexuality studies.

• Women'[email protected] Contact & Department Info Mail
• Undergraduate
• Modified Major
• Honors Thesis Guidelines
• Past Honors Theses
• Independent Study
• Transfer Credit
• Tell Us Your News
• News & Events
• News & Events
• Annual Stonewall Lecture
• Past Lecture Series

Search form

This guide is intended to help potential honors students in the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program choose an advisor, formulate a topic, and navigate the research, writing and presentation of the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Honors Thesis. The Program encourages students to meet weekly and work closely with their advisor throughout the Honors project.

Eligibility

To be admitted to the honors program, thus qualifying for Honors or High Honors, a student must have taken at least 4 WGSS courses, have a 3.3 GPA in the major and satisfy the minimum college requirement of a 3.0 general College average at the beginning of the senior year, or when application to the program is made.

The Honors Program consists of a two-course sequence above the minimum course requirement in the major. The first of these courses is Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 98; the second is Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 99. Honors students arrange a program of study and research during any two terms of the senior year on a tutorial basis with individual faculty members. Credit for Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 99 depends upon successful completion of the thesis. A student will receive an incomplete for Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 99 until such time as the thesis is filed and approved for Honors credit. Students will receive college credit for both courses (WGSS 98 and WGSS 99) though only one course will count towards the major.

Thesis Topics

Plans for writing an honors thesis should be made during the junior year—the earlier the better . Begin by meeting with that faculty member in the Program with whom you expect to work.

If you have already selected a topic.

Find the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies faculty member most knowledgeable in that area and discuss plans for your approach, do preliminary readings, and compile a tentative bibliography. If you do not know which faculty member you would like to work with, ask the WGSS Chair or Coordinator and they will suggest appropriate WGSS faculty members with expertise in that field.

If you know the faculty advisor you wish to work with, but do not have a topic,

Ask your advisor for help. Propose possible topics that interest you (see Ways to Brainstorm About a Thesis Topic, below) and ask your advisor to help you narrow your focus and define your topic.

Your main thesis advisor should be an affiliated faculty member in the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. You may choose a second faculty member who will be a "resource" person rather than an advisor. This person can be from Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies or outside the Program.

NOTE: Not all faculty are available every term or even every year to supervise work. It is imperative that you locate and approach the faculty member you would like to work with as early as possible.

Ways to Brainstorm about a Thesis Topic

• Think back to previous courses, course readings, or topics that have interested you.
• Think about your outside interests, extra-curricular readings, hobbies, or organizations you have joined.
• Think about past internships, employment situations, volunteer work or social activist activities.
• Think about your post-Dartmouth vocational plans.

Preliminary Proposal

Due Date: May 15th of junior year.

• Decide how to situate your project in the discipline
• Choose an advisor and consult with her/him about your thesis
• Create a rough timetable for your research and writing
• Establish your summer research and reading list
• Plan for needed research for your project/thesis such as lab space, use of computers, funding for travel, duplication costs of questionnaires, creative supplies, archival needs.
• If you will be gathering data from human subjects (i.e. questionnaires, interviews on sensitive personal issues), contact the Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects. You will need to have the CPHS's approval to have your thesis proposal accepted. To review their guidelines for undergraduate student researchers, go to: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~cphs/tosubmit/students/.
• A draft of your proposal should be shown to your advisor BEFORE you submit your proposal to the Steering Committee. Effective proposals are brief and clear (maximum 2 pages) and should include the following:
• A clear statement of the topic
• Mention of the texts you plan to include
• Your approach: questions you plan to ask; methodology; theoretical framework
• The relationship of the topic to the courses you have taken or to your major
• What prepares you for this project?
• Any anticipated conclusions

Proposals MUST be accompanied by the following additional materials

• Draft bibliography (a list of reading you need to do to address the topic, i.e., background reading, criticism, historical sources, etc.)
• Terms you plan to take WGSS 98 and WGSS 99
• Advisor endorsement form (or email from the advisor to the Program)

The Steering Committee will review and comment on the proposal, timetable and bibliography and make comments or suggestions. The Steering Committee may ask students to revise and resubmit their preliminary proposals, if necessary, before the end of spring term.

Final Proposal

Due Date: End of the second week of classes, fall term, senior year. (Please check with the WGSS office for the specific due date for final proposals.)

Students will submit a revised final proposal to the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Steering Committee. The proposal should address any concerns from the Steering Committee’s spring term review, and be revised and expanded as a result of summer research. Proposals should include the following:

• Revised project timetable
• Updated advisor endorsement form (blitz version is o.k.)
• Extensive annotated bibliography
• Student course profile
• Approval from the Human Subjects office if applicable.

Research, Writing, and Creation

Completed at the end of the first term of thesis (wgss 98).

• Develop questionnaires (if using): pre-test and administer
• Archival work
• Participant observation
• Lab experiments
• Reading and research
• Drafts of chapters
• Permissions received to reproduce photographs
• Copyright permissions acquired
• Final approval from the Human Subjects office

Analysis and Writing

Second term of thesis (WGSS 99)

Thesis Completion: Revision and Final Draft

A complete and final draft of the thesis must be submitted to the advisor by approximately the 6th or 7th week of spring term in senior year. Please contact the WGSS program for the exact deadline. Note: You should think of this draft as a complete version of your thesis. You will be expected to revise it further based on the comments of your readers.

Oral Presentation

All Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Honors Majors will give an oral presentations of their thesis. Arrangements will be made for research results (1/2 hour) to be presented to a group of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies faculty or in a public forum.

Final Submission

THREE final bound copies of the thesis are due in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies office no later than the week before the last day of classes in spring term. Students must provide a total of three bound copies of the thesis: One for your advisor, one for the archives in Baker Library, and one for the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies office. The copy for Baker library should be delivered to the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies office.

If necessary, WGSS can fund the final printing of student theses. Students should work with the Program Coordinator to arrange the final printing, if they so choose.

Normally an honors thesis would be no less than 50 pages and no more than 100 pages. If it seems likely that your project will fall significantly outside this norm, please consult your advisor and the Program chair. This is most likely in projects that will involve significant research components other than library research and writing. Once you have handed in your thesis, your advisor will evaluate your final version and make her/his recommendation to the Program based on the quality of your work. During the two-day period just prior to final exams, the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Steering Committee will meet to consider the recommendations of all advisors and then will vote on regular or high honors for all Honors Program participants. Your final grade will be assigned by your primary advisor reflecting your overall participation in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 98 and 99.

Further Recommendations

Have regular and substantive meetings with your thesis advisor.

One of the most significant elements of the Honors program in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies is the collaboration of the student with their faculty advisor. There is no substitute for a good working relationship with your advisor and receiving her/his feedback. Students should plan to work closely with their advisor from defining their topic to the oral presentation and completed thesis. Advisor and student generally meet once a week over the two terms of WGSS 98/99, and in those meetings often establish a close intellectual relationship that many graduates feel is one of their most valuable experiences.

Let your proposal (and time frame) be your guide

Preparation is crucial. Leave plenty of time to find your advisor and define your thesis topic. A well-thought out proposal is the strong foundation for a successful thesis. Once you have a good and effective thesis proposal, allow it to guide your thinking over the next two terms of work. You are by no means bound to replicate precisely the kind of arguments you set out in the proposal, but do not wholly abandon your research and thinking. Develop and expand the ideas in the proposal. Over time, the changes in the thesis should be gradual and come out of further research rather than any abrupt changes mid-project.

The thesis is not a recapitulation of sources you've read.

The Honors thesis is your original and thoughtful contribution to the field of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. It is not a recapitulation of sources you have read nor is it an exercise in pure creativity or simple data gathering.

Leave time for revisions!

As you go along, develop your chapters in an overall progressing argument and leave time for revisions. The spring term of your senior year will be busy. You will have to devote a substantial amount of time toward your thesis work, and a crucial part of the writing is revising.

Be aware of deadlines

Note the deadlines as indicated in these guidelines. It is your responsibility to know when things are due. Do not expect your advisor or anyone in the Program to remind you. Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program faculty and staff will not respond to crises due to lack of planning or missed deadlines.

Anticipate problems and don't wait until the last minute

Leave time for inter-library loans; requests for copyright permissions; approval from the Human Subjects office. Leave time for identifying and interviewing subjects; gaining access to field sites; and return time for questionnaires, transcribing etc. Leave time for any computer issues—hard drives crash, software gives out. Back up your data as you have never done before; have alternative computing arrangements. Problems are inevitable, but they can be resolved if you don't wait until the last minute.

Access and Restrictions

The copy of a student's honors thesis submitted becomes the physical property of Dartmouth College. The student retains all copyrights to the work unless alternate arrangements are made by the student.

Photocopying from theses is done only within the restrictions of copyright law and in keeping with the physical preservation of the theses. Reproductions may be made for Interlibrary Loan. The author may dispose of other copies of his/her thesis as desired, may publish the thesis, and register the copyright at any time.

Students should be aware that thesis recommendations apply to the record copy of the thesis in the Archives; it is the responsibility of the student to become familiar with the policies of academic departments that require separate copies of the thesis.

Important Links and Documents

Student_course_profile.pdf.

• Advisor's Endorsement Form

Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects

• Alumni Stories

Printable version of guidelines

Student course profile, advisor endorsement form.

• The Student Experience
• Financial Aid
• Degree Finder
• Undergraduate Arts & Sciences
• Departments and Programs
• Research, Scholarship & Creativity
• Centers & Institutes
• Geisel School of Medicine
• Guarini School of Graduate & Advanced Studies
• Thayer School of Engineering
• Tuck School of Business

Campus Life

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Athletics & Recreation
• Student Groups & Activities
• Residential Life

Physics and Astronomy

Department of physics and astronomy.

• [email protected] Contact & Department Info Mail
• Undergraduate
• Information for New Students
• Physics Major
• Astronomy Major
• Engineering Physics Major
• Undergraduate Awards
• Recent Senior Theses
• Learning Outcomes
• Physics and Astronomy Course Offerings
• Physics & Astronomy Society

Student Research Opportunities

• Astronomy and Your Career
• Undergraduate Alumni Stories
• Tell Us Your Story
• Graduate Awards
• Graduate Timeline
• Recent PhD Graduates
• Foreign Study
• Astronomy FSP in South Africa
• Weather Archive
• All Projects
• Astrophysics
• Particles, Fields, Gravitation, and Cosmology
• Gravitational Quantum Physics
• Quantum and Condensed Matter
• Plasma and Space Physics
• Inclusivity
• News & Events
• News & Events
• Physics and Astronomy Colloquia
• Colloquium Archives (before 2017)
• Symposium on Charles Young's 1869 Discovery of Coronium
• Jay Lawrence Symposium Archive
• Pressure of Light Symposium
• Public Lecture Archives
• Public Observing
• Diversity Statement
• Faculty & Staff
• Membership Directory
• Committee Assignments
• Department Chair
• Graduate Advisor
• Undergraduate Advisor

Search form

• Undergraduate Requirements
• Careers in Physics and Astronomy

Women in Science Project

E.e. just program, presidential scholars program, requirements for the honors thesis program.

Dartmouth provides many unique opportunities for undergraduates to become directly involved in active research. Many students take advantage of these opportunities through the Honors Thesis Program. An honors student carries out a program of independent work in physics or astronomy under the supervision of a member of the faculty. This independent work is usually done in the student's senior year, and it may be either experimental, theoretical, or observational. A written thesis on the completed work is then presented before a faculty committee. All departmental Honors are considered individually and awarded by a vote of the faculty. If the faculty consider a student's work to be truly exceptional, they may vote to award High Honors.

Most students who choose to enter the Honors program begin to get experience in faculty research labs well before their senior year, often through such opportunities as the Women in Science Project , the " E. E. Just Program , or the Presidential Scholars Program .

Click  here to see a list of recent graduates and their senior thesis topic.

• The Student Experience
• Financial Aid
• Degree Finder
• Undergraduate Arts & Sciences
• Departments and Programs
• Research, Scholarship & Creativity
• Centers & Institutes
• Geisel School of Medicine
• Guarini School of Graduate & Advanced Studies
• Thayer School of Engineering
• Tuck School of Business

Campus Life

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Athletics & Recreation
• Student Groups & Activities
• Residential Life

Department of Geography

• [email protected] Contact & Department Info Mail
• Undergraduate
• Majors and Minors

Senior Honors Thesis

• Tell Us Your Story
• Gallery of Student Work
• Faculty Research
• Student Research
• Postdoctoral Fellowships
• Off-Campus Study
• News & Events

Search form

• Alumni Stories

Dean of Faculty office Opportunities

Dickey center for international understanding opportunities, rockefeller center opportunities.

Students must apply to the honors thesis program by May 15 submitting a formal letter of application and a preliminary proposal to the department. The department offers preliminary acceptance to the honors program based on these documents. In addition, students normally must have a minimum GPA of 3.5 in the major and a GPA of 3.33 overall. Proposals and research plans are developed further in GEOG 90 during fall quarter.

The department will select an appropriate advisor and two committee members for each successful honor thesis application. The advisor and committee oversee the student's progress, provide a means of communication between the student and the department, and ultimately make a recommendation to the department about the quality of the thesis. The typical course sequence associated with an honors thesis begins with GEOG 90 (Fall), followed by GEOG 85 (Winter) and GEOG 87 in the Spring Term.

Many students support their scholarship with research grants. Students must apply to non-departmental sources first before requesting departmental funds. Thesis students are strongly encouraged to explore the options available at:

• UGAR Funding
• Dickey Center for International Understanding
• Rockefeller Center

Please pay special attention to the funding deadlines as applications are typically due a term or more before funding is provided.

When, on occasion, support from these places is limited or unavailable, student may also apply to Geography for research support.

Full, formal proposals must be submitted to the department at the latest by November 1 by emailing [email protected]. The department may vote to reject a proposal and relays its comments to the students through the thesis committee.

The following timetable is for spring quarter; dates for other quarters should be adjusted accordingly. This is the minimum recommended schedule for the completion of theses, but advisors may modify this schedule at their discretion.

Timetable for Completion of Honors Theses

The deadline for majors taking GEOG 12 is mid November.

April 15 or earlier

Preliminary draft to advisor. This draft, while not necessarily complete, should include all major chapters.

First draft to thesis committee, including advisor. This draft should hve been completely read by the adviser and serves as a basis for the thesis defense, and for comments by the committee.

Week before Memorial Day weekend

Thesis public presentation and defense. The department will schedule the presentation and defense at times mutually convenient to the student, the committee members, and the department. The presentation precedes the defense, although they may occur on the same day. Presentations are formal, public lectures, open to the College community. Only the student and the committee attend the defense. The defense is an opportunity for the committee to provide detailed, interactive feedback to the student about the thesis.

Based on the first draft, the presentation and the defense, the committee votes to classify the thesis as honors or non-honors. If a thesis is judged to be non-honors, the student will receive credit for Independent Study (Geography 85) or Senior Thesis (Geography 87).

Typically, the committee awards honors contingent on satisfactory revision of the thesis. At the discretion of the committee, they may also advise the student of revisions that will make the thesis eligible for high honors.

May 30 (or approximately 7 days before grades are due)

Final draft due to the advisor. This draft should include all of the revisions required by the committee. (Oversight of these revisions is the responsibility of the advisor and committee.) The advisor will use this draft to assign the student's grades for GEOG 85 and GEOG 87, and the department will use it to evaluate the potential for high honors.

June 4-5 (or approximately 1-2 days before grades are due to the registrar)

The department meets as a whole to evaluate all theses, and votes on high honors.

Completed Thesis

Students will upload completed thesis online using Dartmouth Digital Commons: https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/thesis_dissertation_instructions.html

Example Geography Theses

Past Geography these can be accessed using Dartmouth Digital Commons: https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/geography_senior_theses/

• The Student Experience
• Financial Aid
• Degree Finder
• Undergraduate Arts & Sciences
• Departments and Programs
• Research, Scholarship & Creativity
• Centers & Institutes
• Geisel School of Medicine
• Guarini School of Graduate & Advanced Studies
• Thayer School of Engineering
• Tuck School of Business

Campus Life

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Athletics & Recreation
• Student Groups & Activities
• Residential Life

Earth Sciences

Department of earth sciences.

• [email protected] Contact & Department Info Mail
• Undergraduate
• Undergraduate Alumni
• Prospective and Current Students
• Degree Requirements
• Graduate Student Resources
• Graduate Student Alumni
• Frequently Asked Question For Graduate Students
• Earth Surface and Environmental Processes
• Climate and Cryospheric Sciences
• Earth & Planetary History
• Labs & Facilities
• The Stretch
• Stretch Details & Upcoming Program
• Stretch Alternatives
• Inclusivity
• Commitment to Diversity
• Community Expectations
• Dispute Resolution Guidelines
• Guidance for Fieldwork Planning
• Suggestions
• News & Events

Search form

research opportunities

So you think you might want to do an Honors or Senior thesis in Earth Sciences? It is never too early to begin thinking about one! Read on to find out how to go about deciding on a topic, getting academic credit, getting funding, and completing the thesis.

An EARS major examining rock digestions.

Honors or senior thesis?

All Earth Sciences and Environmental Earth Sciences majors are encouraged to do a senior thesis. Doing one is a way of fulfilling the culminating experience requirement for a Dartmouth undergraduate degree (though there are also other ways via EARS 87 or 88 ). A thesis may, in addition, make you eligible for graduating with Honors or High Honors in Earth Sciences. Download this PDF to read more about thesis guidelines and procedures for both Senior and Honors theses.

PROPOSING, FUNDING, AND COMPLETING A THESIS

Work on Senior or Honors theses often begin during one's junior year, but many students start doing thesis-related research much earlier. In order to identify potential thesis projects, students are encouraged to reach out to individual faculty members, research associates, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students about potential research opportunities. Many students are encouraged to apply to the Dartmouth Undergraduate Advising and Research program, or other internal funding initiatives at Dartmouth, to acquire additional funds to support their research. Once a project is selected, it is largely up to the thesis student to complete the data collection, analysis, and writing, although there is generally a lot of embedded support from the department mentor! The bulk of the data analysis and writing is often completed in the course EARS 89 during one's senior year, but the onus is truly on the thesis student to complete the required work. Although these are commonly demanding projects, this is one of the most remarkable opportunities within the Earth Sciences major! Please find more information here.

The specific requirements of the Senior or Honors thesis are outlined in the ORC .  

ADDITIONAL EXTERNAL RESOURCES

There are plenty of additional funding opportunities outside of the Department of Earth Sciences or Dartmouth College. Below, is a non-exhaustive list of external funding opportunities – please speak with your department mentor or advisor about these opportunities and whether or not it makes sense to apply!

• American Association of Petroleum Geologists Grants-in-Aid
• Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists
• American Meteorological Society Scholarships and Fellowships
• American Philosophical Society Research Grants
• American Philosophical Society Museum Fellowships
• Association for Women Geoscientists
• Evolving Earth Foundation Student Grant Program
• Geological Society of American Student Research Grants
• Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid
• Society of Economic Geologists  

• The Student Experience
• Financial Aid
• Degree Finder
• Undergraduate Arts & Sciences
• Departments and Programs
• Research, Scholarship & Creativity
• Centers & Institutes
• Geisel School of Medicine
• Guarini School of Graduate & Advanced Studies
• Thayer School of Engineering
• Tuck School of Business

Campus Life

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Athletics & Recreation
• Student Groups & Activities
• Residential Life

Art History

Department of art history.

• [email protected] Contact & Department Info Mail
• Undergraduate
• Major, Minor and Modifications
• Distribution of Subject Areas
• Foreign Study
• Careers & Opportunities
• College-level teaching
• Museum Work
• Publishing and Freelance Writing
• Art Librarian and Visual Resource Librarian
• Secondary Education
• Art and Architectural Preservation and Conservation
• Art Galleries / Auction Houses
• Corporate Art Curator and Art Investment
• Governmental Agencies
• Museum, Gallery Internships & Select Fieldwork in the United States
• Internships and Field Experience outside the United States
• External Fellowships
• Internal (Dartmouth-Based) Fellowships
• How to choose where to apply?
• The Application
• Financial Aid, Fellowships, and Grants
• Tell Us Your Story
• News & Events
• Riley Lecture
• Rosenthal Lecture
• Visual Resources
• Acknowledgments

Search form

To receive a BA degree “with honors” from the Department of Art History, a student must engage in independent but supervised research, compose an honors thesis, and present a synopsis of their work at a public forum. The research must represent a significant contribution to a specific field of inquiry within the discipline. The Honors Program enables students to explore particular problems in depth, while working closely with a faculty mentor.

Art History students visit the Hood Museum of Art.

So you think you want to write an Honors Thesis in Art History?

That’s great! In electing to write a thesis in Art History you will be joining a select group of advanced majors who have capped their Dartmouth experience with the exciting, challenging, and ultimately very rewarding undertaking of conducting advanced research on the topic of their choice.

The thesis is part of an Honors Program in the Department of Art History. Students who succeed will graduate with either Honors or, in some cases, High Honors on their diplomas.

Writing a thesis will allow you to apply what you have learned in your coursework to a specific project of your choosing and will bring you into the community of scholars of art history. You will develop expertise in an area of the discipline that most interests you. You will conduct original research, some of which may take you to collections far from Hanover. And you will produce a substantial scholarly document that may form the basis for graduate study.

The experience of writing a thesis will allow you to develop advanced skills in primary and secondary research, visual analysis, and crafting an argument. It will provide you with the opportunity to improve and refine your writing and to cultivate a genuine voice as a scholar. It will also challenge many of the conceptions you have about the discipline, your topic, and even your understanding of research and writing. It is ultimately an opportunity for intellectual growth, creative expression, and professional development.

While the thesis will prepare you for advanced study and employment within the arts, the skills you cultivate along the way—autonomy, perseverance, communication, organization, and above all, the ability to take and benefit from constructive criticism—will be transferable to any kind of future employment.

What is an Honors Thesis, exactly?

An honors thesis in the Department of Art History is a multi-chapter document in which each chapter contributes to a larger argument—or “through-line”—rather than acting as stand-alone essays. A typical chapter runs between 15 and 30 double-spaced pages, including notes. Students should look at honors theses from past years (on file in the Department Administrator’s office) at the beginning of the thesis writing process to get a better understanding of departmental expectations regarding length, formatting, and content. 

What else do I need to know about the Art History Honors Program before I get started?

The Art History Honors Program is comprised of a two-course sequence, ARTH 91 Honors and ARTH 92 Honors, taken in two consecutive terms in your senior year. As part of an Honors curriculum, both courses are rigorous and carry high expectations regarding student performance with regard to writing, deadlines, accountability, and critical reflection. You may complete the sequence in fall/winter or winter/spring.

The department will assess your progress during the first term (ARTH 91). If you and/or your advisor(s) decide that you have not made enough progress on the thesis, you will be dropped from the Honors Program and given a grade for the work completed in the first term as ARTH 89: Independent Study (which cannot be used to fulfill any of the requirements of the Art History major or minor).

In most cases the department's Culminating Experience (ARTH 89.01, 89.02, 89.03, 89.04 and 89.05: Senior Seminar in Art Historical Theory and Method) will help students refine the core arguments of their thesis and improve its quality.

Who is eligible for the Art History Honors Program?

To be eligible for the Honors Program, you must have achieved by the end of your junior year a 3.2 general college average and a 3.4 average in all Art History courses.

How do I apply for admission to the Art History Honors Program?

To apply for admission to the Honors Program you will, in either the spring or summer preceding your senior year, consult with potential faculty adviser(s) to develop an honors thesis project. If you have more than one advisor, you will designate one of them as your primary advisor.

You will work independently with a primary advisor to draft and submit a written proposal:

• If electing the fall/winter option, your proposal should be submitted to the department no later than the first day of classes in the fall of the senior year.
• If electing the winter/spring option, your proposal should be submitted no later than the seventh week of the fall term of the senior year.

You will present your thesis proposal to the whole Art History faculty:

• If electing the fall/winter option, you will present your thesis proposal no later than the second week of the fall term of the senior year.
• If electing the winter/spring option, you will present your thesis proposal no later than the final week of the fall term.

Your admission or non-admission to the Honors Program will subsequently be determined by a vote of the faculty.

How do I prepare a thesis proposal?

You will work closely with your advisor(s) to draft a thesis proposal. A thesis proposal is a "dry run" for the thesis process insofar as it will require you to work independently to identify and articulate a thesis question, to conduct sufficient preliminary research to successfully argue for the relevance of your project, and to field questions from the Art History faculty during the oral presentation of your topic. Working your way through this process successfully will give both you and your advisor a good sense for your readiness to undertake an honors thesis.

Please note that the faculty fully expects that your thesis will evolve after you have enrolled officially in ARTH 91 and 92. The argument and organization of chapters that you describe at the proposal stage is just a place to start. Do not be concerned when your subsequent research and writing take you in unforeseen directions. This SHOULD happen if you are really developing your topic along the way. 

Successful proposals will include:

• an introduction to the topic
• a section that establishes the problem or question that the thesis will address
• a literature review that situates the thesis within the relevant literature and explains how or in what way the thesis will contribute to the extant scholarship on the topic
• a discussion of how the subsequent research will unfold (including information on any planned research trips)
• a tentative survey of the chapters with a brief synopsis of each
• a working bibliography that includes all of the source material gathered up to the point of submitting the proposal
• a set of illustrations that correspond with any images discussed in the proposal

How do I prepare for the presentation of my thesis proposal?

You will work with your advisor to draft a succinct oral presentation (circa 10-15 minutes) of your thesis proposal. The presentation should include a PowerPoint presentation of images associated with the proposed thesis. The faculty will have read the proposal before the presentation. They will listen to the oral presentation, and they will ask questions about your project for the purpose of evaluating your readiness and with the intention of helping you to further refine your topic, consider new angles, or develop your bibliography.

Are there departmental resources I can use to offset the costs of researching and completing an honors thesis?

YES! Charlotte and Harold Frank have graciously endowed a research fund in the Department of Art History for student research. Typically the money available from this fund is sufficient to help students pay for all of the costs associated with their theses, including research-related travel within the U.S. and abroad, the purchase of books, museum admissions, and the printing and binding of the completed thesis. Please consult with the Department Administrator and your advisor(s) about how to apply for and use these funds.

Course Descriptions in the ORC

Art history requirements in the orc, timetable of class meetings, office of the registrar.

• The Student Experience
• Financial Aid
• Degree Finder
• Undergraduate Arts & Sciences
• Departments and Programs
• Research, Scholarship & Creativity
• Centers & Institutes
• Geisel School of Medicine
• Guarini School of Graduate & Advanced Studies
• Thayer School of Engineering
• Tuck School of Business

Campus Life

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Athletics & Recreation
• Student Groups & Activities
• Residential Life

Department of Economics

• [email protected] Contact & Department Info Mail
• Careers in Economics
• Student Experiences
• Econ Alumni
• Undergraduate
• First Year FAQ
• Modified Major
• Class Schedule
• Transfer Credits
• Honors Theses 2023
• Honors Theses 2022
• Fed Challenge
• Jobs, Fellowships and Interships
• Political Economy Project
• Bocconi Exchange Information
• Dartmouth-Oxford Exchange at Keble College
• University College London Exchange
• Faculty by Field
• Faculty Research
• Faculty Spotlight
• Globalization Cluster
• Inclusivity
• Inclusion at Dartmouth
• Resources for Undergraduates
• Statement on Racial Justice
• News & Events
• News & Events

Search form

Many undergraduates in the department of economics collaborate with faculty on independent research projects and as research assistants. Here are abstracts of research papers completed by students as honors theses.

Shawdi Mehrvarzan

Pranit Gupta

Arjun Srinivasan with President Hanlon

Gayeong Song

Claire T. McMahon, Advisor: Elizabeth Cascio

"iuds to degrees: the impact of access to contraceptives on high school graduation rates,".

This study evaluates how increased access to affordable Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptives (LARCs) impacts high school graduation rates. I utilize the 2009 Colorado Family Planning Initiative (CFPI) as a setting through which to study the relationship.  Building on previous studies of CFPI that found a significant decline in teen pregnancy rates in zip codes within seven miles of a Title X clinic, this research measures the increase in graduation rates at high schools near Title X clinics. My results show that the female graduation rates increased by 2.16 percentage points more at schools near Title X clinics than elsewhere in the state following the introduction of CFPI, which were driven by gains in Hispanic and Black female graduation rates. Findings suggest that access to affordable reliable birth control improves a girl's ability to invest in her education.

Shawdi Mehrvarzan, Advisor: Treb Allen

Can trade policy be gendered assessing the effect of shared gender of heads of state on bilateral trade flows.

This paper applies the gravity model framework to nearly seventy years of data to assess whether gender dynamics between de facto world leaders can affect what is commonly considered to be a non-gendered policy issue: trade costs and flows. We find that in the presence of two heads of state of the same gender, bilateral trade flows increase in a significant way on average; however, the magnitude of these effects are sensitive to a bevy of political, geographic, and economic factors. Based on these factors, we find that same gender plays a greater role in bilateral trade dynamics when the destination country is politically violent or has a history of previous conflict. Meanwhile, it has no effect with respect to trade between two democratic countries with high economic mobility and strong regional alliances. These trends indicate that one leader's willingness to cooperate with another purely on the basis of their gender may be deeply rooted in the sociopolitical environments of both their country and their trade partners.

Ethan Moon, Advisor: Andrew Levin

Do corporate boards actually matter evidence from the s&p 1500.

We use 15 years of monthly data from the S&P 1500 trading index to examine the relationship between board composition and firm performance. Our results indicate that having a dual CEO/Chair decreases firm performance during normal market conditions but can protect shareholder value during periods of market turmoil. We document that the practice of CEO/Chair duality is decreasing within the S&P 1500 index over our sample period. These results are consistent with competing theories on CEO/Chair duality and suggest that the impacts of CEO/Chair duality on firm performance may be dependent on market conditions.

Yangyang Li, Advisor: Douglas Staiger

One and done evidence of gender and racial tokenization on corporate boards.

I gather two decades of panel data from the S&P 1500 to analyze board diversity and hiring practices. I note that the proportion of female and nonwhite board members has increased substantially over the sample time period. I use a logit model to evaluate the impact of board composition on diverse hiring tendencies within a company. I estimate effects for women, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians. Overall, the results indicate that when a company's board becomes more diverse, they are less likely to hire an additional diverse director. Additionally, diverse board members are hired with greater likelihood following the separation of a diverse director. The results are consistent with the view that firms use diversity as a signal to make themselves more attractive to investors and new talent and stop hiring once this demand is met. I find limited heterogeneous effects across sectors and inconclusive evidence that California's gender quotas mitigate tokenization.

Nathan Pucci, Advisors: Elizabeth Cascio and Melinda Petre

What's driving the covid-19 slide the impact of pandemic-induced school disruptions on english language learners in massachusetts public schools..

I estimate the impact of time spent in virtual and hybrid learning modes during the 2020-2021 school year on performance outcomes among third through eighth grade students in Massachusetts public schools. Specifically, I combine district-level learning mode data during the 2020-2021 school year with spring 2017-2019 and 2021 performance outcomes on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) and Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State for English Language Learners (ACCESS for ELLs) assessments. I find that larger schools and those serving higher shares of economically disadvantaged and Hispanic students operated in fully virtual modes for a larger share of the 2020-2021 school year. Additionally, I find that English Language Learners (ELLs) faced more pronounced performance declines on the 2021 MCAS exam compared to non-ELLs. Among both ELL and non-ELL students, these declines were larger among younger students (in third to fifth grade) and more severe in math relative to ELA. Learning losses were concentrated among students exposed to more virtual schooling throughout the 2020-2021 school year, however ELLs were not differentially impacted by virtual learning itself. I estimate that virtual schooling is responsible for a decline in average MCAS scores of 3.457 points (0.15 standard deviations) and 2.398 points (0.10 standard deviations) on the math and ELA sections, respectively, for the average student that was exposed to virtual schooling for 42 percent of the school year. Among ELLs, my findings suggest that virtual schooling is responsible for a 15.54 percentage point decline in the share of students in third to fifth ·grade making progress in English language proficiency in the average district. My findings indicate that teachers, administrators, and policy makers should allocate significant time and resources to those students most exposed to virtual learning during the pandemic to prevent these learning losses from persisting and compounding over time.

Rohith Mandavilli, Advisor: Bruce Sacerdote

Investigating the market response to corporate scandal characteristics prior to announcement.

This paper examines corporate scandals of both a financial and non-financial nature between 2005 and 2020. I propose a novel date estimation technique to isolate the date the scandal actually occurred to regressed Cumulative Abnormal Returns (CARs) on that scandal's characteristics. My findings suggest that certain scandal characteristics, such as company industry, scandal type and prevalence of media focus have specific and varying effects on CARs. Previous literature has shown that scandal announcements generally lead to significantly negative CARs, but no research has been done analyzing the correlation between CARs prior to announcement date and scandal characteristics. Generally, I've shown it is quite difficult to predict future returns, though there are some that glean important information for investors.

Brendan Balthis, Advisor: Treb Allen

The impact of imports on local and household health outcomes in the u.s..

This paper analyzes the effect of rising U.S. exposure to (1) imports from China on county-level mortality rates from 1995 to 2014 and (2) imports from all countries on health outcomes for individuals over time from  1972  to  2007.  Rising import  exposure  causes higher rates  of mortality from all causes and deaths of despair in U.S. counties. Import exposure in a household's state of residence significantly increases the likelihood of an individual developing a work disability but does not significantly  affect  poor  health  status  or missed  work  time  due  to sickness.This effect is of the same magnitude for both sexes but slightly larger for males.Import exposure in a household's main industry has mostly small and insignificant impacts but significantly increases the likelihood of a female developing a work disability.

Archita Harathi and Arjun Srinivasan, Advisor: Douglas Staiger

Does money move the effect of desegregation order dismissals on school resource disparities.

Recent work finds school integration increased per-pupil spending and educational attainment for black students. We study whether school resegregation has the opposite effect. With new school-level data, we document substantial variation in per-pupil expenditures inside school districts. We exploit quasi-random variation in the timing of the lifting of federal school desegregation orders to identify the effect of order dismissals on resource disparities within school districts. The lifting of desegregation orders is associated with a modest rise in segregation and a small ($137) but insignificant increase in the black-white gap in per-pupil expenditures.

Hugh McKenzie, Advisor: Andrew Levin

Examining the coevolution of population health and national income using bivariate markov transition models, 1970 to 2019.

Understanding the casual relationship between national income and population health has significant implications on the allocation of resources for the optimization of overall wellbeing. The past two centuries have seen enormous changes to both national income and population health. Since the 1940s, the poorest countries have made remarkable improvements in population health, measured in life expectancy. At the same time, growth economists have found little evidence of a catch up on the economic front. This paper uses a bivariate Markov transition model to analyze the nonlinear growth patterns of population health and national income as they relate to each other from 1970 to 2019. Key findings of this paper hint at the causal relationship between improvements in population health and national income growth. However, this relationship is not found to move in the opposite direction.

Gayeong Song, Advisor: Douglas Staiger

How do scope of practice changes impact the nurse practitioner labor market.

The debate on nurse practitioner scope of practice (NP SOP) expansions lack evidence on labor market implications. Leveraging cross-state differences in degrees of SOP independence in 2000-2019, I analyze time-variant effects of NP SOP changes on NP labor market outcomes and supply. My results indicate temporary increases in NP work hours as well as graduate nursing program completions 2-4 years after a state grants fully independent SOP. Furthermore, expansion of prescriptive authority is associated with an increase in the total number of NPs in states with lower access to the out-of-state health care labor market. Overall, I find that SOP changes only impact the NP labor market in the short-run. I also conclude that the NP labor force has a high wage elasticity as well as high responsiveness to demand shifts. Thus, targeting long-term labor demand should be the critical goal for NP-related policymaking.

Alex Z. Wang, Advisor: Bruce Sacerdote

Seal the deal analyzing the effect of mergers and acquisitions on acquiring firm performance.

Whether or not to complete the acquisition of a company is one of the most important decisions any corporation must make. Using data from CRSP / COMPUSTAT, this paper analyzes whether these transactions generate value. This paper analyzes these M&A transactions from 1998 to 2022 and conducts both an event study and a difference-in- difference analysis with comparable firms that have not engaged in a transaction. Through these analyses, this paper aims to examine whether aspects like revenue synergies or cost synergies are realized from these deals, along with how the market reacts to transactions.

Arthur Raines, Advisor: Eric Edmonds

The impact of fluctuations in the price of gold on education in tanzania..

This paper evaluates the impact of fluctuations in the price of gold on enrollment and household expenditure in Tanzania. Using a difference-in-differences strategy that compares households that vary in their proximity to a gold mine, I find that a sixty-two percent increase in the price of gold leads to an 18.6 percentage point decline in enrollment among individuals fourteen to seventeen years old living within thirty kilometers of an artisanal gold mine. I also find that wealth increases for households living within thirty kilometers of a gold mine.

Alexander J. Ginnis, Advisor: Bruce Sacerdote

Individual, peer and exogenous effects in ski racing success and persistence..

Ski racing is a complex sport to study as it is among the most "elitist" and factors such as gender, age, ability, socioeconomic background, injuries, and home location all play a vital role in an individual's ability to persist in the sport. By working with an original data set which contains every US ski race over the past 23 years I am able to study the exogenous, individual and peer effects with respect to one's success and persistence in the sport. Through my research I was able to make the following findings: 1. Peers are extremely important to one's ability to persist. "Superstar" peers who compete at a high level have a negative impact on non-superstars ability to persist in the sport, while "superstar" peers who are an age category ahead have a positive impact on non-superstars ability to persist. 2. Although top placement in younger ages suggests future high-level performance, it does not guarantee persistence. Marginal placement of 4th and 5th are stronger indicators of persistence compared to podium finishes. 3. Trends are similar across both genders.

Rine Uhm, Advisor: James Feyrer

Subjective well-being and aggregate unemployment across welfare states: evidence from the gallup u.s. poll..

Using data from the Gallup U.S. Poll, this paper estimates the effects of aggregate unemployment on the subjective well-being of U.S. residents. First, this paper finds that a rise in the state-level unemployment rate negatively affects subjective well-being, even after controlling for state and time fixed effects and personal characteristics, such as employment status. This suggests that a rise in state-level unemployment has negative spillover effects on all residents of that state and not just those who lose their job. Second, this paper finds that the presence of strong welfare, measured by the base generosity of state unemployment insurance benefits, does not impact how individuals react to changes in the unemployment rate. In other words, statutory generosity does not appear to protect the subjective well-being of individuals during economic downturns. Third, this paper finds that the perception of strong welfare, proxied by the adoption and implementation of Medicaid expansion, has a statistically significant impact on the way in which individuals react to changes in the unemployment rate. Specifically, individuals living in states that are perceived to have strong welfare experience a smaller loss of positive emotions and a smaller gain of negative emotions during recessions.

• Study Abroad

• The Student Experience
• Financial Aid
• Degree Finder
• Undergraduate Arts & Sciences
• Departments and Programs
• Research, Scholarship & Creativity
• Centers & Institutes
• Geisel School of Medicine
• Guarini School of Graduate & Advanced Studies
• Thayer School of Engineering
• Tuck School of Business

Campus Life

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Athletics & Recreation
• Student Groups & Activities
• Residential Life

French and Italian

Department of french and italian.

• [email protected] Contact & Department Info Mail
• Undergraduate
• Placement Information & Exams
• Transfer Credit
• French Introductory Language Sequence
• French Intermediate and Upper Level Courses
• French and Italian in Translation
• Italian Language Courses
• Italian Upper Level Courses
• 2023-2024 French Courses
• 2024-2025 French Courses
• 2023-2024 Italian Courses
• 2024-2025 Italian Courses
• Romance Languages
• French Studies
• Italian Studies
• French or Italian as a Modifier
• French Timeline
• Italian Timeline
• Endowed Research Grant
• Study Abroad
• LSA+ Toulouse
• Guarini OCP programs
• Full Immersion Rome Experience (FIRE)
• Italian LSA+ Rome
• Careers and Opportunities
• CAPOFARFA FARM INTERNSHIP - ITALY
• EATALY BOSTON
• LIBERA INTERNSHIP - ITALY (VARIOUS LOCATIONS)
• Apprentice Teacher Info
• Arianna Pagani ’93 Memorial Prize In French And Italian
• Bruno Tollon Prize In French Studies
• Cloise Appleton Crane Prize In French And Italian
• François Denoeu Memorial Prize
• French Consulate Prize
• George E. Diller Memorial Prize
• Lawrence And Sheila Harvey Prize In French And Italian
• Paul D. And Marilyn M. Paganucci Prize In Italian
• Pray Modern Language Prize In French And Italian
• Ramon Guthrie Achievement Award In French
• The Colette L. Gaudin Prize in French
• Thomas J. Gaudet, Jr. Memorial Prize
• What you can do with a major or minor in French and Italian
• News & Events
• News & Events
• French Newsletters
• Italian Newsletters

Search form

• Areas of Study & Course Descriptions
• Course Schedules

Honors Thesis Program

Please refer to the ORC for general, College-wide requirements for admission to the Honors Program. In any of the five types of major offered by the Department of French and Italian, a student who wishes to write an honors thesis must give evidence of exceptional ability and interest in the major field by having a GPA of 3.5 or better. 

Honors Thesis

The thesis topic and the individual faculty advisor for the thesis must be determined during the student's junior year, with a one-page thesis proposal due to both the advisor and the department chair, Andrea Tarnowski, by June 1 st .

Honors Thesis in French - Students in their senior year writing an honors thesis in French will take FREN 87 in the fall, FREN 78 (the Senior Major Seminar) in the winter, and FREN 89 in the spring.  FREN 87 and FREN 89 are courses specifically and entirely devoted to thesis work.  All three courses (FREN 87, FREN 78, and FREN 89) count toward the honors major.  The honors thesis in French, French Studies, or Romance Studies with a principal concentration in French must be written in French.

Honors Thesis in Italian - Students in their senior year writing an honors thesis in Italian will take ITAL 88 in the fall and ITAL 89 in the winter, or, alternatively, ITAL 88 in the winter and ITAL 89 in the spring.  Both ITAL 88 and ITAL 89 count toward the honors major.  The honors thesis in Italian, Italian Studies or Romance Studies with a principal concentration in Italian must be written in Italian.

Upon student submission of a thesis, department faculty will determine whether the student will graduate without honors in the major, with an Honors designation, or with a designation of High Honors.

• The Student Experience
• Financial Aid
• Degree Finder
• Undergraduate Arts & Sciences
• Departments and Programs
• Research, Scholarship & Creativity
• Centers & Institutes
• Geisel School of Medicine
• Guarini School of Graduate & Advanced Studies
• Thayer School of Engineering
• Tuck School of Business

Campus Life

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Athletics & Recreation
• Student Groups & Activities
• Residential Life

Department of Theater

• [email protected] Contact & Department Info Mail
• Undergraduate
• Equity and Inclusivity
• Peer Advisors and Student Representatives
• Major Requirements
• Honors Thesis
• Modified Major Requirements
• Modifying another Major with Theater
• Minor Requirements
• Course Descriptions
• Instructor Permission Courses
• Independent Study
• National Theater Institute
• For Prospective Students
• Performing and Auditions
• Directing and Designing
• Playwriting
• Stage Managing
• The Scene Shop
• The Costume Shop
• Now Onstage: Upcoming Productions
• Production Photos
• Big & Little Student Productions
• Student Work in the time of COVID
• About MainStage Productions
• Opportunities
• Frost and Dodd Play Festival
• New York Theatre Workshop Residency
• The VOICES Program
• Testimonials
• Kingsdale Fund
• Need-Based Funding
• Goldner Mini-Fellowship
• Other funding opportunities
• Funding for Graduate Studies
• Internships, Fellowships, and Graduate Programs
• The Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award in Playwriting
• Foreign Study
• News & Events
• All News and Events
• MainStage Production News
• Honors Thesis Productions
• Summer Theater Lab News
• Faculty News
• Student News
• Visiting Artist News
• Alumni News
• Faculty and Staff
• Visiting Artists
• Tell Us Your Story
• Sudikoff Hall Offices
• Theater and Performance Studies

Search form

• Courses: offerings by term
• Off-Campus Exchange

Carene Mekertichyan ’16

An honors project: kelleen moriarty ‘19, the honors thesis.

An Honors Thesis provides an opportunity to deepen skills and knowledge in an area in which the student has already demonstrated the ability to produce distinguished work.

" Suspended " an original work written and performed by Brooke Goldner '19 as part of her Honor Thesis project. Photo Rob Strong.

Clara Batchelder ’19 and Owen O'Leary performing in "The Glass Menagerie ", directed by Kelleen Moriarty ’19 as her Honors Thesis project. Photo Rob Strong.

Annie Furman '19 performing her original piece "Water Horse" at the Dartmouth Riding Center as part of her Honors Thesis project. Photo Rob Strong.

Claire Feuille '18 performing in "Away This Night" , an Honors Thesis project conceived, designed, and co-directed by Julie Solomon '17. Photo Rob Strong.

Carene Mekertichyan ’16 performing as the Lady in Red, in her Honors Thesis performance of "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide...". Photo Rob Strong.

The Honors Program

While THEA 90 constitutes the culminating experience for Theater majors, some students might also wish to pursue more intensive and advanced study/practice on one topic by developing an honors thesis over two terms in their senior year. Because it is additional to the requirements of a major, an honors thesis in Theater is intended to deepen a student's skills and knowledge in an area in which they have already demonstrated excellence in the Theater Department.

The Honors Thesis purposefully focuses on depth over breadth. It is not the appropriate venue for introductory experiences with creative roles, production roles, or critical perspectives; students seeking such breadth are encouraged to propose Student Productions as well as work with Department productions in as wide a variety of roles as possible. Students seeking to do a large-scale project involving more than two artistic roles (such as designing and playwriting), which is beyond the scope of Theater Department thesis, should consider applying in their Junior Year for a Dartmouth Senior Fellowship; these fellowships are for students whose projects exceed the disciplinary focus or resources of any single department.

Eligibility

Students who have completed at least five major courses and who have an average in the major of 3.4 or higher (and a College average of 3.0 or higher) are eligible to apply for the Honors Program. Students with modified as well as standard majors may apply. An Honors project normally extends through two terms and receives two major credits. These Honors credits are in addition to the ten-course major.

Learning Goals

The Theater Department evaluates honors thesis proposals based on a) alignment between the project and specific learning goals; b) the student's prior accomplishments in the proposed area of study, as demonstrated through engagement with the Theater Department; c) the project's practical feasibility within the Department's resources.

Theater faculty will determine a customized set of learning goals for each accepted thesis proposal. They will choose multiple goals from among the following four categories, in consideration of the student's objectives and type of proposal (see elaboration of these learning goals below):

• Production Skills
• Collaborative Skills
• Synthesis of Vision and Practice
• Critical/Analytic Skills

Models for Honors Theses

Honors theses can take many forms, ranging from purely analytic research papers to primarily creative projects. They isolate one area of study for deeper work and analysis. In keeping with the College's liberal arts mission, all theses involve an academic component. Model thesis projects have included

• A written academic thesis
• An original full-length play with a supporting paper
• Directing a pre-existing play with a supporting paper
• A design project with a supporting paper

Exceptions may be granted for students who wish to do an honors thesis in solo performance. In those cases, it is expected that the students have demonstrated substantial experience in writing and performing, and it is preferable that they have taken THEA 25: Solo Performance.

Students interested in pursuing creative work through an honors thesis are strongly encouraged to collaborate with each other. For example, perhaps one student proposes to direct a play while another student proposes to design it—and they each receive separate honors thesis credit for their individual projects on the same production. 

Honors theses that are primarily creative in scope will include an academic component, which will typically consist of a reflective and analytical essay, approximately 15-18 pages in length. All thesis students will also produce a bound document for the Rauner library that includes the essay as well as additional documentation of the honors thesis project, as determined in consultation with the thesis advisor.

Honors Thesis Deadlines 2024-2025

Because of the schedule for our move back into the HOP, any 2025 Thesis projects that involve staged work will be performed in Winter 2025 (rather than in Spring 2025, which would be the usual schedule). This means that the calendar for submitting proposals and taking Thesis course credits (THEA 91 and THEA 92) is pushed earlier than usual.

Deadlines for STAGED projects:

Preliminary honors proposals due Friday, April 5, 2024     

Full proposals due Friday, June 28, 2024

Register for Fall 2024: THEA 91: The Honors Thesis I – Research/Design Meetings

Register for Winter 2025: THEA 92: The Honors Thesis II – Rehearsals/Performances

Deadlines for ACADEMIC PAPER or DESIGN projects:

Preliminary honors proposals due Friday, May 10, 2024

Full proposals due Friday, September 20, 2024

Register for Winter 2025: THEA 91: The Honors Thesis I – Research

Register for Spring 2025: THEA 92: The Honors Thesis II – Final Project

Please reach out to Catherine Jacobs, Academic Coordinator , with any questions.

Honors Program Details

Proposing an honors thesis.

The proposal process is divided into two parts, and students must complete both steps on time in order to pursue an honors thesis.

Step 1: The preliminary proposal. Step 2: The full proposal.

**NOTE: Because of the schedule for our move back into the HOP, any 2025 Thesis project that involves staged work will be performed in Winter 2025 (rather than in Spring 2025). This means that the calendar for submitting proposals and taking Thesis course credits (THEA 91 and THEA 92) is pushed earlier than usual.**

PRELIMINARY PROPOSAL

**The deadline for Class of 2025 preliminary honors proposals for STAGED projects will be Friday, April 5, 2024. Deadline for ACADEMIC PAPER or DESIGN PROJECTS will be Friday, May 10, 2024**

Please email your proposal to Catherine Jacobs,  Academic Coordinator .

The preliminary proposal is an opportunity for the Faculty to provide the Honors candidate with initial feedback on their ideas in order to help them develop a more complete proposal during the summer . Preliminary proposals should be developed in conversation with a faculty member who could ultimately serve as an advisor for the project. 

Preliminary proposals should include the following:

• A brief description of your project
• Why are you proposing this project? How does it help you to fulfill your general educational goals as a theater major?
• What are your top three concrete thesis learning goals with this project? (See "Learning Goals" above)
• How will this project build upon your prior academic experiences as well as challenge you in new and unique ways?
• Why does this project require an honors thesis (two-term) commitment versus other production or curricular opportunities? 
• An estimate of the resources that your project will require (number of actors, director, space requirements, etc).

A typical preliminary proposal is between two and three pages in length.

The faculty will provide feedback on your preliminary proposal during the end-of-year meetings that we have with all of our junior students, which are traditionally scheduled at the very end of the spring term. The Department does not vote on preliminary proposals; we understand and expect that your concept and plans will not yet be fully defined at this early stage.  

FULL PROPOSAL

**The deadline for Class of 2025 honors proposals for STAGED projects will be Friday, June 28, 2024. Deadline for ACADEMIC PAPER or DESIGN PROJECTS will be Friday, September 20, 2024**

Students should work closely with their honors thesis advisor to develop their Honors Thesis proposal. Proposals will be evaluated based on the originality and depth of the project, the quality of the proposal, and the student's prior record of accomplishment. The faculty also seeks to balance the student's educational aims with the available resources of the department.

Students who prepare for an Honors project by pursuing approved courses of advanced independent study may, with approval of the Department, be allowed to complete the project (thesis) in one term. Students in the Honors Program must complete the ten courses required for the standard or modified major; the Honors credits are in addition to the ten-course major. Students may complete the ten-course major simultaneously with the Honors thesis: the ten-course major does not necessarily have to be completed before the honors work has begun.

For reference, students may view our Honors Thesis proposal template .

Examples of successful honors thesis proposals are also available from the Department's Academic Coordinator . For additional information, students should consult with the  Chair of the Department of Theater .

Wrapping Up

We do not have formal "defenses" in our department; however, the end-of year-meetings that the faculty holds with each senior provide an opportunity in which the student can reflect on what they learned during the honors thesis process. 

Academic projects are required to be turned into Rauner library; the due date will be determined by the student's advisor. We also strongly encourage students with creative projects to develop portfolios of their projects to ensure archival documentation of their work.  

According to College policy, students must achieve at least a B+ average in the work of the Honors Program in order to earn Honors in their major. Students who receive less than a B+ will still earn academic credit for their work. At the end of the academic year, the faculty will also vote on whether to award the student "high honors." Although the faculty feels strongly that receiving "honors" is already a mark of excellence, we will consider awarding "high honors" to those projects that demonstrate 1) Concrete achievement of the proposed learning goals, 2) sustained dedication across the two terms, 3) originality and boldness of creative vision and/or ideas, and 4) thoughtfulness and care in the execution of the project—all of which will add up to outstanding artistic and/or academic work that goes above and beyond our expectations. For creative projects, the faculty will evaluate the student's collaborative skills with peers, staff, and faculty. Even though the department will seek to honor the student's vision in the execution of the project, flexibility is crucial given the nature of our art form. Please note that in order to be considered for high honors, any written work (the supplemental essay for creative projects, or full thesis in the case of academic theses or playwriting theses) must be shared with the faculty at least one week in advance of their voting meeting.

LEARNING GOALS FOR HONORS THESIS PROJECTS WITH A CREATIVE/PRODUCTION COMPONENT

Production skills. The student successfully demonstrates an understanding of and the ability to execute production skills by

• actively participating in all scheduled production and design meetings
• respecting the budget laid out for the thesis project, or any other related projects
• providing all necessary paperwork, models, renderings, fabric swatches, light plots and all required documentation by the deadlines set for the thesis project
• always being on time

Collaborative Skills . For an honors thesis with a production component, the student successfully demonstrates collaborative skills by

• listening to and creatively adapting to the ideas and feedback of the production team, staff, and faculty mentors
• articulating the foundational cultural perspective(s) of the vision in written and verbal forms, demonstrating awareness of and concern for disparate impacts on diverse communities
• establishing an ensemble based on respect and mutual understanding, foregrounding the notion that empathy is at the heart of the theatrical arts
• problem-solving individually and in teams at every stage of the process and articulating lessons learned from key issues that arise or discoveries made (i.e. as would occur in rehearsals and rehearsal notes and responses to rehearsal notes)

Synthesis of vision and practice. The Department does not necessarily consider the content of the student's vision, but rather how that vision is articulated, how it is deployed, and how it informs the process and the final product as well as its impact. The student successfully synthesizes artistic vision and practice by

• completing the development phase of the project - ideation and articulation, proposal development and engagement with faculty advisor and peers.
• recognizing and proactively filling gaps in knowledge and skills in preparation for the project
• completing the production/written component of the project - practical steps to transform concept into an actual production through an intentional and informed process
• completing the post-project phase of the project – articulating lessons learned, assessing correlation between intended and actual impact, projecting next steps

LEARNING GOALS FOR ACADEMIC HONORS THESIS PROJECTS

Critical/Analytic skills. The student successfully completes an academic honors thesis by

• conducting independent research on a significant question, based on a bibliography of both primary and secondary sources developed in close consultation with their advisor (suggested: 10-15 sources)
• articulating a central idea/thesis for a research project that critically engages with and expands upon the scholarly literature
• communicating findings in a carefully written document that clearly tracks the trajectory of the argument
• presenting key findings in an oral presentation

Past Honors Thesis Projects

The following examples of theses were selected to show the range of what theater students have accomplished through our honors program. This is just a small sample of the many remarkable projects our students have accomplished over the years.

• Kelleen Moriarty '19 directed The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams through a disability justice lens, using casting and staging choices to add depth and nuance to the play's representation of disability.
• Annie Furman '19 drew on ecotheatre and animal studies to develop a solo performance, "Water Horse," which featured herself in collaboration with a horse named Bodie. The piece itself was staged in a barn at the Dartmouth Riding Center.
• Matthew Treiber '16 wrote an academic thesis, "Teen Suicide in the Contemporary American Musical," which analyzed of representations of teen suicide and mental illness in three recent U.S. musicals— Spring Awakening , Heathers , and Dear Evan Hansen. His oral presentation included the singing of those numbers that were especially significant to his argument. 

• The Student Experience
• Financial Aid
• Degree Finder
• Undergraduate Arts & Sciences
• Departments and Programs
• Research, Scholarship & Creativity
• Centers & Institutes
• Geisel School of Medicine
• Guarini School of Graduate & Advanced Studies
• Thayer School of Engineering
• Tuck School of Business

Campus Life

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Athletics & Recreation
• Student Groups & Activities
• Residential Life

Kennedy Hamblen

I'm Kennedy, a literature nerd and creative writer from the outskirts of Memphis. I'm also a senior here at Dartmouth. When I'm not working in admissions as a senior fellow, I'm a student employee at the library and a research and teaching assistant in the English department. I love music (I collect vinyl!) and analyzing teen drama TV (think Riverdale and Pretty Little Liars). I'm currently applying to law schools. I've had such a great time at Dartmouth and am excited to share that with you!

Academic Program 

Favorite thing right now .

Pumpkin bread

Hometown 

Pronouns , you are here.

• People Places Pines

My English Honors Thesis: Chapter Two

Kennedy's d-plan, fall hanover, nh.

Professor McCann is my advisor, but that's not the only reason I took this class. Since it was a senior seminar with only 9 students, we got to dive deep into the fascinating material, including with Victorian-era pulp fiction books, advertisements, and psychological treatises, plus some good old fashioned canonical works like The Picture of Dorian Gray and Dracula. [Fun fact: I've read Dracula three times at Dartmouth... it's an English department favorite!]

Winter Hanover, NH

This was an off term for me, but I love Hanover so much I hung around anyways! I worked for admissions and Baker-Berry Library, read a ton of J.G. Ballard, and stared out the window at the snow for an embarrassingly long amount of time. I also visited my parents in Tennessee during Christmas.

Spring Hanover, NH

Professor Nachlis went out of his way to act as an unofficial pre-law advisor for all of us in this class, not only by introducing us to some of the most pressing issues in American government, but also by dedicating the final two weeks of class to a module called "Should you go to law school?" A question I was asking myself!

Summer Hanover, NH

Another off term again, and this time I'm working full-time for admissions as a senior fellow! I'm also doing a lot of preliminary reading for my honors thesis. Anyone heard of Friedrich Kittler's Discourse Networks? Well, I'll have read it twice by the time this term is over.

First, I should explain that I'm specifically talking about her 1890 novel Wormwood: A Drama of Paris , which follows a promising young man whose life is ruined when he becomes addicted to absinthe. Today, people can buy absinthe from a liquor store just like any other alcohol. And yet, absinthe was treated like an opioid or cocaine in Wormwood , and during the fin de siècle , people really believed it was a uniquely addictive and horrible alcohol, capable of causing hallucinations and degeneration. The reason? It has a special ingredient—wormwood—which we now know contains the compound "thujone." Absinthe was a fashionable drink in France during the nineteenth century, and as France suffered failures at home and abroad, absinthe was often blamed for ruining the population. 

I read Wormwood for Professor McCann's senior seminar "Decadence, Degeneracy, and the Fin de Siècle " which was a super cool class about the late nineteenth-century artists known as the Decadents (think Charles Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde) and contemporaneous anxieties about the fall of European societies. Corelli's  Wormwood  toes a fascinating line between decadence and anti-decadence—it's an aggressively moralistic book, and the author herself saw it as a warning to her fellow Englishmen and women to avoid the excesses of alcohol and opium. At the same time, it pulls heavily from both the decadent art tradition and absinthe advertising. Corelli's descriptions of absinthe hallucinations, for instance, have direct parallels both to De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater and to the absinthe advertisements of her time. Although Corelli was immensely popular in her day, some reviewers even accused her of being a Decadent herself as a result of this book, and her own publisher found the material absolutely sordid. But it sold incredibly well. Corelli knew how to both harness the most compelling artistic trends of her day while also playing to her audience's expectations and desires for literature.

This brings me back to my initial question: Why am I writing about this book, if it's decidedly not High Literature? (Pun intended.) Something that the English department here does extremely well is allowing space for all varieties of English academia. Literary studies in its traditional sense, cultural studies, data-based textual analysis, close reading, historicism, media studies, comparative literature, and basically everything else can coexist in this department. It's a big tent. So you don't have to only focus on canonical works of literature, or even books at all. I am interested in Corelli because she was a massive literary force in her time—she was one of the first bestsellers at a time when the pulp fiction landscape was changing rapidly. Her literature may not stand the test of time, but that is all the more reason to pay attention to how she wrote, because it appealed to her contemporaries and therefore allows us to better understand how they thought of problems such as addiction, hallucination, and spirituality in the post-Darwin era. Think about it this way—if a scholar from the 22 nd century wanted to understand the 21 st century, they would not only need to watch the best TV shows and movies we produced, they would also need to watch the most popular ones, even if they were… not that great. After all, the "greatness" or quality of a piece of art is, paradoxically, both objective and subjective. How much someone gets out of a piece of art is a result of when and where they were born, their cultural frame of reference, and their taste.

Click to show post info Post Information

• english department
• honors thesis
• independent study
• Copy This Link
• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter

Posts You Might Like

(Spring)ing Into My Third Term

As I enter my third term of my first year at Dartmouth, I am happy to share the three classes I am taking in the spring.

Latin at Dartmouth

Learn about Latin at Dartmouth!

My Spring Break

Read on to hear about my spring break!

My Classes for 24S

This is my final term before senior year, which is both exciting and terrifying at the same time. One thing I am excited about is the classes I am taking this term, so let me tell you more!

Is Dartmouth a Competitive School?

Ever wondered if Dartmouth is a competitive school? Come read about my experience.

Seminar Classes at Dartmouth

Many small classes at Dartmouth are seminar-style and are the cornerstone of the intellectual exploration and intentionality that define the learning experience at Dartmouth.

Springterim Interfaith in DC: Part 2

In addition to houses of worship, we went to museums and organizations during our week in DC.

All About the English Major

I've officially completed all of my English major requirements for Dartmouth. Since I'm now a veteran English student, I'll walk you all through one of Dartmouth's coolest departments!

My "Why Dartmouth?" as a Sophomore

Why Dartmouth: a reflection as a sophomore

Announcing the 2024 Honorary Degree Recipients

Nine honorands include leaders in the sciences, medicine, and technology.

Global Sports Icon Roger Federer to Speak at Commencement

Nine remarkable individuals—including a legendary athlete-turned-philanthropist and leaders in artificial intelligence and higher education—will receive honorary degrees at this year’s Commencement ceremony on June 9.

“The common denominator among this year’s diverse and exceptional class of honorands is the outsized impact they each have had as innovators and agents of change in their respective careers and in the world,” says President Sian Leah Beilock . “I am proud to welcome them to Dartmouth.”

Each year prospective honorary degree recipients—scholars, artists, innovators, public servants, philanthropists, and others who have made extraordinary contributions to their respective fields and society at large—are nominated by members of the Dartmouth community . The confidential nominations are reviewed by the Council on Honorary Degrees, which selects the honorands in consultation with the president and the Board of Trustees .

This year, the recipients are:

• Joy Buolamwini, a computer scientist, artist, and founder of the Algorithmic Justice League
• Liz Cheney, former U.S. representative from Wyoming and vice chair of the House Jan. 6 committee
• Mung Chiang, president of Purdue University
• Commencement speaker Roger Federer, philanthropist and former tennis champion
• Mira Murati, Thayer ’12, chief technology officer of OpenAI 
• Paul Nakasone, retired director of the National Security Agency and commander, U.S. Cyber Command
• Richard Ranger ’74, a retired attorney and current lecturer in the business and law faculties of Uganda Christian University 
• John Urschel, a mathematician and former Baltimore Ravens guard
• Roy Vagelos, philanthropist and retired chairman and CEO of Merck & Co. and retired chairman of Regeneron

About the 2024 Honorary Degree Recipients

Joy Buolamwini (Doctor of Science)

Fortune Magazine has called her the “conscience of the AI revolution.” TIME named her to its inaugural list of 100 most influential people in AI. Known as the “poet of code,” computer scientist and author Dr. Joy Buolamwini has made it her mission—in science, art, and activism—to expose biases in AI systems and prevent AI harms. 

In 2016, she founded the Algorithmic Justice League, a research and storytelling organization that uses creative science communication to help show how AI systems perpetuate harmful stereotypes. Her research on facial recognition technologies transformed the field of AI auditing and has been covered in over 40 countries.

Dr. Joy Buolamwini’s “Gender Shades” paper is one of the most cited peer-reviewed AI ethics publications to date. Her MIT thesis methodology uncovered large skin type and gender bias in AI services from companies like Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon. In 2020, these companies stepped back from selling facial recognition technology to law enforcement. Her TED talk on algorithmic bias has been viewed over 1.7 million times.

In addition to lending her expertise to congressional hearings and government agencies seeking to enact equitable and accountable AI policy, she served on the Global Tech Panel to advise world leaders and executives on reducing AI harms. Dr. Joy Buolamwini’s writing and work have appeared in TIME, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, and other publications, and she is featured in the Emmy-nominated documentary Coded Bias, which is available in 30 languages to over 100 million viewers. Last year, she became a national best-selling author of her book, Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines .

Dr. Joy Buolamwini is also a recipient of the Technological Innovation Award from the Martin Luther King Jr. Center, the 2024 winner of the NAACP-Archewell Foundation Digital Civil Rights Award, and received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Knox College. Dr. Joy Buolamwini completed her undergraduate degree in computer science at Georgia Institute of Technology and was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to Zambia, where she developed a technology-education program for young people. In 2014, she won a Rhodes Scholarship, which she used to earn a master’s of science in learning and technology at the University of Oxford. She went on to complete her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was a researcher in the MIT Media Lab.

Liz Cheney (Doctor of Laws)

A staunch advocate for democracy, Liz Cheney—who gave the keynote earlier this year at the Democracy Summit, a series conceived by students—is the former U.S. representative from Wyoming who served as vice chair of the select committee investigating Jan. 6. Her bestselling book, Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning, gives her first-hand account of what it was like to be in the House of Representatives on that day.

As a member of Congress, Cheney was chair of the House Republican Conference—the third-highest position in the House Republican leadership—and served on the House Armed Services Committee, the China Task Force, the Natural Resources Committee, and the House Committee on Rules.

Before running for office, Cheney served in the U.S. Department of State as principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs and in various roles with State and USAID in Poland, Hungary, Russia, and Ukraine. With her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, she is co-author of Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America .

Cheney graduated from Colorado College, received her JD from the University of Chicago Law School, and practiced law with White and Case and at the International Finance Corporation. She and her husband, Phil Perry, are the parents of five children.

In 2022, Cheney received the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library’s Profile in Courage Award.

Mung Chiang (Doctor of Science)

Engineer, educator, technology entrepreneur, and innovator Mung Chiang is president of Purdue University, where he is the Roscoe H. George Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Before taking office as Purdue’s president in January 2023, Chiang served as Purdue’s executive vice president for strategic initiatives and as the John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering. Under his tenure as dean, the engineering school earned its first back-to-back top-4 graduate rankings in the U.S. and grew to be the largest top-10 undergraduate engineering college in the country.

Chiang began his academic career at Princeton University, where he was named the Arthur LeGrand Doty Professor of Electrical Engineering and was the first chairman of the Princeton Entrepreneurship Council and director of the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education. His work to launch entrepreneurial programs at Princeton led him to be named a 2014 New Jersey CEO of the Year, and his research earned him the Alan T. Waterman Award from the National Science Foundation—the highest honor presented to an American researcher under the age of 40. 

From 2019 to 2020, he served as science and technology adviser to the U.S. secretary of state and initiated the U.S. government’s tech diplomacy programs. Since returning from Washington, in 2020, he co-founded the Krach Institute of Tech Diplomacy at Purdue and serves as the technology and innovation adviser to the state of Indiana.

Chiang holds 25 U.S. patents, most of which have been licensed and deployed by the communications and networking industry. 

Roger Federer (Doctor of Humane Letters)

One of the greatest tennis players of all time, Roger Federer dominated the sport between 1998 and his retirement in 2022, ranking No. 1 in the world for men’s singles for a record 237 weeks in a row (310 weeks total) and winning 103 Association of Tennis Professionals Tour singles titles and 20 Grand Slam singles championships, including eight Wimbledon titles. 

He is one of only eight men to win all four major tournaments (the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open), and the only player in history to have won two Grand Slam tournaments—Wimbledon and the U.S. Open—five consecutive times. 

Among other achievements, he won a gold medal in doubles at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, earned the title of Swiss Athlete of the Year six times, and won a record 40 ATP Tour Awards.

The Roger Federer Foundation, which he founded in 2003, has invested more than $96 million in education initiatives serving more than 2.7 million children living in poverty in Switzerland and countries in southern Africa. Federer holds dual citizenship in Switzerland and South Africa.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Federer made substantial contributions to support vulnerable families in Switzerland and South Africa. In January 2020, he joined his friend and fellow tennis star Rafael Nadal to raise money for people affected by the Australian bushfires.

Mira Murati, Thayer ’12 (Doctor of Science)

As chief technology officer of OpenAI, where she has spearheaded pioneering projects—including ChatGPT, Dall-E, and Codex—Mira Murati works at the forefront of shaping the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence and machine learning and their responsible and ethical application. In her role, she oversees research, product development, and deployment.

Murati previously led OpenAI’s hardware strategy, managed the reinforcement learning and safety research teams, and led product and deployment. Before joining OpenAI, she managed the product and engineering teams at Leap Motion and worked at Tesla Motors, where she led the design, development, and launch of vehicle products, including the Model X, and innovative programs in aerospace. 

Today, Murati and her teams in research and product development and deployment are pushing the frontiers of what neural networks can do and are working to make AI systems safer and more aligned with human intentions and values. Her contributions to mechanical engineering, technology research, and executive leadership have made her a respected figure in her field and a mentor for tech enthusiasts worldwide. 

Born in Albania, Murati attended Colby College as a Davis UWC Scholar and simultaneously earned her AB from Colby and a BE from Dartmouth as a dual-degree student at Thayer School of Engineering.

Paul M. Nakasone (Doctor of Laws)

Paul M. Nakasone served for nearly four decades in the United States Army in the United States, South Korea, Iraq, and Afghanistan—a career that mirrors the American national security landscape, from the end of the Cold War to his most recent role as commander of the U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency/chief of Central Security Service, which he held from 2018 until his retirement in February as a four-star general.

In this final assignment, Nakasone led the largest element of the U.S. intelligence community and the U.S. Department of Defense’s cyber forces during three national elections, two presidential administrations, a global pandemic, and increased threats to the U.S. homeland and the world.

Throughout his career, Nakasone brought innovative and transformative leadership to solve complex challenges. He pioneered a persistent approach to employing cyber forces to defend against cyber nation-state hackers. Recognizing the advantage of partnerships, he developed broader sharing with international, interagency, and private-sector entities that provided insights on the nation’s adversaries. 

He also drove greater transparency in operations, working to build the trust and confidence of the American people in the Agency and the Command.

A native of White Bear Lake, Minn., Nakasone grew up in an Army family whose legacy of service dates back to World War II. He is a graduate of Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., where he received his commission through the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. He holds graduate degrees from the University of Southern California, Army War College, and National Defense University.

Richard Ranger ’74 (Doctor of Humane Letters)

Since 2021, Richard Ranger, who spent 43 years as a negotiator, environmental compliance manager, and government relations specialist in the oil and gas industry in the western United States, Alaska, and Washington, D.C., has lectured in the business and law at Uganda Christian University—a second career that reflects his lifelong commitment to service, his faith, and his sense of adventure. 

Ranger majored in English at Dartmouth and went on to earn his JD from Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver. Throughout his first career, he was active in civic and church activities, volunteering in youth sports, chairing local boards for Habitat for Humanity and the United Way, and for 10 years hosting a public radio jazz program in Alaska. He also served as a short-term missionary in Uganda and the Dominican Republic, and he and his wife, Catherine, often hosted UCU law students in their home in Washington when they competed in an annual moot court competition. At UCU, Ranger served as site coordinator for the installation of a solar thermal water heating system for the campus dining hall, installed by Dartmouth and UCU engineering students.

Committed to his alma mater, he has been the Class of 1974 newsletter editor for 40 years. During his tenure as class president, he helped guide construction of the first class-sponsored bunkhouse at Mt. Moosilauke. He has also served as a representative to the Alumni Council, as head of the Class Officers’ Association, and on the Class of 1974 Mortality Disparity Working Group. 

John Urschel (Doctor of Letters)

Former NFL guard-turned-mathematician John Urschel is an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a junior fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows, and author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Mind and Matter: A Life in Math and Football .

As an undergraduate at Penn State, where he also completed his master’s degree in mathematics, Urschel earned numerous recognitions for his exceptional performance both on the football field and in the classroom, including All-American honors, the William V. Campbell Trophy (also known as the academic Heisman), and the AAU James E. Sullivan Award, given to the nation’s most outstanding amateur athlete.

In 2014, Urschel was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens and played for three seasons. He left professional football to pursue doctoral work full-time at MIT under the supervision of mathematician Michel Goemans, completing his PhD in math in 2021, with research focused on fundamental problems in matrix analysis, numerical linear algebra, and spectral graph theory. He was recently awarded the SIAM DiPrima Prize for his PhD thesis Graphs, Principal Minors, and Eigenvalue Problems. Before joining the MIT faculty, he was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study.

Still committed to football, he has served a three-year term on the College Football Playoff selection committee.

Roy Vagelos (Doctor of Humane Letters) 

Physician-scientist and philanthropist Roy Vagelos is the retired chairman and CEO of Merck & Co., Inc., and retired chairman of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Vagelos earned an AB in 1950 from the University of Pennsylvania. After completing his MD from Columbia University and a residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital, he joined the National Institutes of Health, where he served 10 years, first as senior surgeon and then as section head of comparative biochemistry. In 1966 he became chairman of the Department of Biological Chemistry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. In 1973, he founded the university’s division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences. 

In 1975, Vagelos joined Merck Research Laboratories as president of research. In 1985 he was named CEO and later became chairman. He retired from Merck in 1994 and became chairman of Regeneron, from which he retired in 2023.

A member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, Vagelos has received many awards in science and business and 15 honorary doctorates. He chaired the board of the University of Pennsylvania and has served on the boards of TRW, McDonnell Douglas, Prudential Finance, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, and The Nature Conservancy.

He is currently chairman of the board of advisors of Columbia’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons—named in recognition of gifts Vagelos and his wife, Diana, have made to the college—and chair of the board of advisors of the Columbia Climate School. The Vagelos’ generosity has also helped launch three undergraduate programs at the University of Pennsylvania: Molecular Life Sciences, Life Sciences and Management and the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research. 

Important Commencement Dates

Saturday, May 11

9 a.m.— Geisel School of Medicine Class Day at Lebanon Opera House, Lebanon, N.H. The speaker is John Paul Sánchez , dean of Universidad Central del Caribe School of Medicine.

Friday, June 7

2 p.m.—Geisel MPH and MS Class Day on Life Sciences Center lawn. The speaker is Irene Dankwa-Mullan, Geisel ’97 , chief health officer at Marti Health.

Saturday, June 8

9:15 a.m.— Thayer School of Engineering Investiture at the West End Circle. Mung Chiang, president of Purdue University, will deliver the keynote address. 

1 p.m.— Tuck Investiture at the steps of Tuck Hall. Kenny Mitchell ’97, Tuck ’04 , senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Levi’s brand at Levi Strauss and Co., will deliver the investiture address.

 2 p.m.—Baccalaureate, a multifaith, multicultural celebration for graduates and their families, Rollins Chapel. Speaker to be announced.

4 p.m.— Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies Investiture on the Green. Reception to follow on the Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center Lawn. 

Sunday, June 9

9 a.m.—Academic procession to the Green. The Commencement ceremony begins at 9:30 a.m.

The Office of Communications can be reached at  [email protected] . 

• Commencement
• Commencement 2024
• Sian Leah Beilock
• Office of the President

• The Student Experience
• Financial Aid
• Degree Finder
• Undergraduate Arts & Sciences
• Departments and Programs
• Research, Scholarship & Creativity
• Centers & Institutes
• Geisel School of Medicine
• Guarini School of Graduate & Advanced Studies
• Thayer School of Engineering
• Tuck School of Business

Campus Life

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Athletics & Recreation
• Student Groups & Activities
• Residential Life

Psychological and Brain Sciences

Department of psychological and brain sciences.

• [email protected] Contact & Department Info Mail
• Undergraduate
• Major & Minor FAQs
• Honors FAQs
• Major and Minor Checklists
• Transfer and AP Credit
• Introductory
• Intermediate
• Independent Research
• Course Syllabi (ID login required)
• Request Form
• Winter 2025
• Spring 2025
• Research Areas
• Coursework and Curriculum
• Mentoring Toolkit
• Current Graduate Students
• Admissions FAQs
• Recent Dissertations
• Recent Research Findings
• Undergraduate Research
• Post-Doctoral Opportunities
• Participate in Experiments
• 2021 Honors Student Thesis Presentations (ID Login Required)
• 2022 Honors Student Thesis Presentations (ID Login Required)
• 2023 Honors Student Thesis Presentations (ID login required)
• Suggestions
• For Current PBS Community (ID Login Required)
• News & Events

Search form

Luke chang wins the social and affective neuroscience society mid-career award, posted on april 16, 2024 by lisa d. aubrey.

Associate Professor Luke Chang was awarded the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society 2024 Mid-Career Award at the SANS conference in Toronto this past week, where he was also invited to give a talk. The prestigious SANS Mid-Career Award recognizes a mid-stage investigator who has made significant contributions to Social and Affective Neuroscience in terms of outstanding scholarship and service to the field. His nomination came from Tor Wager, Director of Dartmouth's Brain Imaging Center, and Thalia Wheatley, with whom Chang co-directs the Consortium for Interacting Minds.

Dr. Chang directs the Computational Social Affective Neuroscience Laboratory at Dartmouth College. He uses computational techniques from psychology, cognitive neuroscience, economics, and computer science to study the neurobiological and computational mechanisms underlying emotions and social interactions.

• The Student Experience
• Financial Aid
• Degree Finder
• Undergraduate Arts & Sciences
• Departments and Programs
• Research, Scholarship & Creativity
• Centers & Institutes
• Geisel School of Medicine
• Guarini School of Graduate & Advanced Studies
• Thayer School of Engineering
• Tuck School of Business

Campus Life

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Athletics & Recreation
• Student Groups & Activities
• Residential Life

Department of Sociology

• [email protected] Contact & Department Info Mail
• Undergraduate
• The Thesis Proposal
• Past Honors Theses
• Course Schedule by Term
• First Year Seminars
• Introductory Courses
• Lower Division
• Upper Division
• Culminating Experience
• Prizes & Awards
• Research Awards
• Transfer Credit
• Alumni Stories
• Tell Us Your Story
• What is Sociology?
• First Year Questions
• Exchange Program
• Costs and Financial Aid
• Student Visa
• Courses, Credits, and Grades
• Faculty Research
• Student Research Spotlight
• Sociology Research Awards
• Research Resources
• A. Wade Smith Research Award
• Media Contacts
• News & Events

Search form

How immigration and the southern border became a big issue for this new england state, posted on april 17, 2024 by savannah kuchar usa today.

Professor Sunmin Kim recent interview with Savannah Kuchar of USA TODAY.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/04/17/new-hampshire-voters-immigration-2024-election/73030566007/

• The Student Experience
• Financial Aid
• Degree Finder
• Undergraduate Arts & Sciences
• Departments and Programs
• Research, Scholarship & Creativity
• Centers & Institutes
• Geisel School of Medicine
• Guarini School of Graduate & Advanced Studies
• Thayer School of Engineering
• Tuck School of Business

Campus Life

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Athletics & Recreation
• Student Groups & Activities
• Residential Life

Spanish and Portuguese

Department of spanish and portuguese.

• [email protected] Contact & Department Info Mail
• Our Mission
• Alumni Update
• Undergraduate
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Student Awards and Prizes
• Hispanic Studies
• Romance Studies
• Lusophone Studies
• Hispanic and Lusophone Studies
• Thesis Timeline
• Application Process
• Thesis Research Funding
• Past Theses
• First-Year Seminars (FYS)
• Transfer Credits
• Foreign Study
• Spanish LSA in Santander
• Spanish LSA+ in Barcelona and Buenos Aires
• Spanish FSP in Madrid and Buenos Aires
• Brazil Learning Immersion in São Paulo and Salvador (BLISS)
• Student Opportunities
• Apprentice Teacher Information
• Digital Resources
• Student Funding
• AT/Drill Instructor Tryout Dates
• Living Guidelines
• Day of the Dead
• El Cafecito
• News & Events

Search form

Let's talk carnival.

Join us for a presentation centered around the cultural experiences, interests, and research of faculty members as they share information on the celebration of Carnival from the perspective of various communities.

Monday, April 15th, 2024 

Doors open at 6pm, Presentations will begin at 6:30pm

Kemeny 007 Bloom/Chao

Join us for a presentation centered around the cultural experiences, interests, and research of faculty members Sandra Mefoude-Obiono (FRIT), Mauricio Acuña (SPANPORT), Clifford Campbell (AAAS), and Marie Larose (FRIT) as they share information on the celebration of Carnival from the perspective of various communities. This presentation will also provide insight to the importance of Carnival season connecting to economic growth for communities, Carnival's connection to politics and social justice, as well as the ways that music, playing mas/processing and the imagery found in Carnival spectacles deliver greater messages that are more than just glitz and glamor.

• The Student Experience
• Financial Aid
• Degree Finder
• Undergraduate Arts & Sciences
• Departments and Programs
• Research, Scholarship & Creativity
• Centers & Institutes
• Geisel School of Medicine
• Guarini School of Graduate & Advanced Studies
• Thayer School of Engineering
• Tuck School of Business

Campus Life

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Athletics & Recreation
• Student Groups & Activities
• Residential Life

Comparative Literature Program

• [email protected] Contact & Department Info Mail
• Undergraduate
• Learning Objectives
• Courses Recommended For First Year Students
• Course Descriptions
• How to Apply
• Minor in Translation Studies
• Thesis Timeline
• Past Theses
• Awards & Prizes
• Undergraduate Alumni Stories
• Tell Us Your Story
• About the Program
• Degree Requirements
• Graduate Alumni Stories
• Academic Achievement Award
• COLT MA Graduate Handbook
• News & Events
• Annual Hoffman Lecture
• Annual Zantop Memorial Lecture

Search form

Translation panel event in honor of english professor monika otter.

Sanborn Library hosts translation panel honor of English professor Monika Otter

Click on the link for full article: Sanborn Library hosts translation panel

On April 12, Sanborn Library hosted a Q&A with three professional translators: Czech specialist Alex Zucker, Hindu and Urdu specialist Daisy Rockwell and Italian and German specialist Alta Price.

The event, dubbed "The Bridge," was catered by the Nest Café and co-sponsored by the Comparative Literature Program, the English and Creative Writing Department, the Leslie Center for the Humanities and the Office of the Associate Dean for Interdisciplinary Programs. French and Italian Department chair Andrea Tarnowski organized the event, which drew around 40 students from across the College's humanities departments.

"Planning this event has really been an education, finding out the sources for who translates what languages, what the signs of successful translation are," Tarnowski said. 

Zucker reflected on the powerful calling he felt to become a translator, explaining that he and his fellow translators had felt an "innate responsibility" to share certain non-English texts with the English-speaking world.

"Translation is … how we can understand people from across the world who are always to some degree different from us, yet also inextricably linked to us," Tarnowski said. "It's another individual, another representative of another group. You have to do a form of translation to understand that individual [and] understand their experience." 

During the panel, one student said learning a language can be like "building a lego" — as one learns language by building a cohesive structure of meaning. Yilu Ren GR , who is studying comparative literature, said she appreciated this metaphor.

"As a Chinese drill instructor, I use the lego metaphor to show students how the Chinese characters are combined into one Chinese word as the infrastructure of Chinese vocabulary, which is vastly different from the English vocabulary," Ren said. "You're putting pieces together, but it's an organic new entity which we're making from the pieces." 

Ren — who hopes to pursue a career in translation after graduating this June — asked whether the "top experts in the field" are willing to teach prospective translators the art of translation. 

"Absolutely, I would love to lecture at a university about … the art of translation, but it's just not a luxury that I particularly have or anticipate having, at least in the coming year or two," Zucker responded.  

According to the Dartmouth English department website, the event was held in honor of English professor Monika Otter , who died on May 5, 2023. Otter, whose scholarship focused on the use of language, worked in Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Provençal, Spanish and medieval Welsh.

• Visual Essays
• Print Subscription

James Parker up for parole in May, 23 years after the Zantop murders

In 2002, parker was convicted of second-degree murder for his role in the deaths of professors half and susanne zantop..

James Parker, who was convicted of second-degree murder in 2002 for the death of German language and comparative literature professor Susanne Zantop, is up for parole in May. Parker is currently serving a sentence of 25 years to life.

In January 2001, Chelsea High School students Parker and Robert Tulloch, posing as students conducting a survey, entered the residence of Half and Susanne Zantop to rob and murder them, according to past reporting by The Dartmouth. A friend who was visiting the Zantops for dinner discovered their bodies.

The two fled and were apprehended in Indiana days later. According to The New York Times, New Hampshire state police identified Parker and Tulloch through sales records from the knife sheaths they left behind. Prosecutors said the pair planned to steal ATM cards and escape to Australia. 

Susanne was the chair of the German department, and Half was a professor in the Earth science department.

Tulloch pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Half and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, according to past reporting by The Dartmouth. Parker pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Susanne. His plea deal included the possibility of parole in return for testifying against Tulloch. 

In 2019, Parker sought early release from his sentence because he believed he had been a “model” prisoner and rehabilitated himself, according to his appeal. However, he later withdrew his appeal for early release following objections from the Zantop family, according to the Valley News.

Earth science professor Leslie Sonder, Half’s former colleague, wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth that the College community felt “universal … shock and grief” when they learned of the Zantop’s deaths, followed by “horror” as the details of the murders were revealed.

“Some people were also a little fearful — were the then-unknown perpetrators targeting Dartmouth faculty or staff?” Sonder wrote. “As time passed and the who and why became clear, then grief was by far the strongest emotion.” 

Charles Kim ’95, who participated in a study abroad program directed by Susanne and accompanied by Half, said the Dartmouth community was left in “disbelief” after the murders. 

“You just don’t think your professors will be murdered in their home,” Kim said. 

Laura Walker ’95, who Susanne advised for her senior thesis, was attending graduate school in Sweden when she learned of the murders. 

“It was so shocking,” Walker said. “It was pretty surreal that something like that would happen, especially in such a small town.”

Some community members expressed concern over the prospect of Parker’s release from prison. Walker, for example, said she was “surprised” after reading on Facebook that Parker was up for parole because of the “brutal and barbaric” nature of the murders. She said she had expected both Tulloch and Parker to spend life in prison without parole. 

“[The murders don’t] feel that long ago to me … so the thought that it could have been long enough already for someone to have sat in prison and experienced the right level of punishment doesn’t make sense to me,” Walker said. “That span of time, in my perception, is not a super long time.”

However, others expressed more ambivalence about Parker’s potential release from prison. Sonder wrote that she does not have “a strong opinion” about the possibility of Parker’s parole because she does not  know how he currently feels about his actions. 

“I have no knowledge of Parker and how he may or may not have matured in 20-plus years and how he feels about what he did as a teenager, so I can’t judge whether he deserves parole or not,” Sonder wrote.

The passage of time has not diminished the legacy of the Zantops within the Dartmouth community. According to the College’s website, the comparative literature department holds an annual Zantop Memorial Lecture for professors. Each year since 2002, the department has also invited a scholar who — like Susanne — has demonstrated a strong investment in the lives of students to give a lecture at the College. The Zantop Garden between Rollins Chapel and Wheeler Hall also honors the two professors with plantings and rocks taken from the Dartmouth Grant, according to the College website.

Half and Susanne impacted both student and faculty members of the Dartmouth community. Sonder wrote that Half was “beloved” for his evenhandedness and approachability, while Kim emphasized the couple’s focus on students. 

“[The Zantops] went beyond just simply teaching,” Kim said. “You could really tell that they really cared about the students.”

Reflection: Total Eclipse of My Life

DOC Goes Digital: A Look Into the Impact of Trailhead

Behind the Books: What’s Up With Grad Students

Students react to roger federer being named 2024 commencement speaker, letter to the editor: a member of the men’s basketball team speaks out in opposition to unionization, dartmouth names honorary degree recipients, dartmouth’s extreme athletes: students’ feats of endurance, ‘a gamble that paid off’: three dartmouth rowers secure spots in the olympics.

The Dartmouth

Victor Mukhin

• Scientific Program

Title : Active carbons as nanoporous materials for solving of environmental problems

However, up to now, the main carriers of catalytic additives have been mineral sorbents: silica gels, alumogels. This is obviously due to the fact that they consist of pure homogeneous components SiO2 and Al2O3, respectively. It is generally known that impurities, especially the ash elements, are catalytic poisons that reduce the effectiveness of the catalyst. Therefore, carbon sorbents with 5-15% by weight of ash elements in their composition are not used in the above mentioned technologies. However, in such an important field as a gas-mask technique, carbon sorbents (active carbons) are carriers of catalytic additives, providing effective protection of a person against any types of potent poisonous substances (PPS). In ESPE “JSC "Neorganika" there has been developed the technology of unique ashless spherical carbon carrier-catalysts by the method of liquid forming of furfural copolymers with subsequent gas-vapor activation, brand PAC. Active carbons PAC have 100% qualitative characteristics of the three main properties of carbon sorbents: strength - 100%, the proportion of sorbing pores in the pore space – 100%, purity - 100% (ash content is close to zero). A particularly outstanding feature of active PAC carbons is their uniquely high mechanical compressive strength of 740 ± 40 MPa, which is 3-7 times larger than that of  such materials as granite, quartzite, electric coal, and is comparable to the value for cast iron - 400-1000 MPa. This allows the PAC to operate under severe conditions in moving and fluidized beds.  Obviously, it is time to actively develop catalysts based on PAC sorbents for oil refining, petrochemicals, gas processing and various technologies of organic synthesis.

Victor M. Mukhin was born in 1946 in the town of Orsk, Russia. In 1970 he graduated the Technological Institute in Leningrad. Victor M. Mukhin was directed to work to the scientific-industrial organization "Neorganika" (Elektrostal, Moscow region) where he is working during 47 years, at present as the head of the laboratory of carbon sorbents.     Victor M. Mukhin defended a Ph. D. thesis and a doctoral thesis at the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia (in 1979 and 1997 accordingly). Professor of Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia. Scientific interests: production, investigation and application of active carbons, technological and ecological carbon-adsorptive processes, environmental protection, production of ecologically clean food.   

Quick Links

• Conference Brochure
• Tentative Program